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Raffl e closi ng date: 25 June It could be yo u climbing th ose steep steps up to th e basi lica of Sacre Coeur in M o ntmartre. Yo u could be the w inner in th e Jes u it Pub licati ons Raffle, and could ce lebrate w ith th e tri p of a lifetime. Make sure your tickets are in by Monday 25 June. Entering th e Jes uit Publi ca ti ons Raffle is a way you ca n help us at Jes uit Publi cations to ensure our continuing financial viabil ity, and is also an opportunity for you to w in a grea t pri ze . FI RST PRIZE Second Prize - Digital Video Disk $10,000 worth of Player to the value of $1000 air travel and Th ird Prize - Colour TV to the value accommodation for of $800 two people, Fourth Prize - Camera to the valu e avai lable from of$600 HARV EST TRAVEL Fifth Prize - $250 worth of books
Pl ease return tickets in the reply-paid envelope by Monday 25 june 2001 . Drawn on Monday 16 july 2001 . Results publi shed in Th e Australian, Saturday 21 jul y 2001 .
Men of hospitality Living an d p roclain1.ing God 's hospitable love
As li ved out by St John of advocacy and reconcili ati on Will you dare to accept God's God over fi ve centuries ago, for those ma rginalised by our invitation to a Hfe dedicated o ur vocatio n is to give of society. to hospitali ty? o urselves completely and Our core of hospitality If >O please contJC t: freely; to be a bro therl y compels and urges us to 13 r.John Clegg O H. Voca ti ons Director. presenc ; a sym bol of hope deepen our relationship with PO 13ox BN lOSS, fo r the world; procl aiming God , o urse lves and with 13 urwood Norrh . NSW 21 3+ God 's hospitable love to th ose who m we share our Austra lia. all . li ves, com m un ity and Telephone (02) 97 +7 1699 W e are call ed to a nlinistry. Fa csim ile (02) 97++ 3262 charism o f hos pitality and W e are th e: 'Broth ers of En1aiJ provin [email protected] love that promotes hea ling, Stjohn ofGod. ' Website: www.stjohn.co m. au EUREKA STREET O:s:<> ' > CCI EUREKA STREE I3:> Winter mN zm~ z cO 3: ., OJV mC <.n"""'C::: - n
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COVER STORIES 14 Citing Hiros hima Robin Gerster reports on Japan, COMMENT the Bomb and m em ory. 4 Marag Fra ser Marking tim e 1 7 Pensio n prospects 5 Andrew Hamilton Taking the Are we doom ed to repeat the mistakes Publisher An drew Hami lton >I high road Editor Morag Fra ser of history wh en it comes to the poor Assistant editor Kate Mant on and the old ? asks Ka y Rollison. Graphic des igner Siobhan jackson General manager M ark Dowell 22 Reca lling M cAuley M arketing Kirsly Grant LETTER S Peter Pierce on the complex and Advertising representative Ken Head 8 Monica Dennison and John Cannady compelling legacy of Jam es McAuley. Subscription manager Wendy Marl owe Editorial, production and admini stration ass istants Juliett e Hughes, Pau l Fyfe 51. Geraldine Ba tt ersby, Ben Hider, BO OKS Mrs Irene Hunter THE M O NTH' S TRAFFI C Contributing editors Adelaide: Greg 9 fan Greenaway Regional rumbles 30 Ventures in Paradise O ' Kelly 51. Pert h: Dean M oore, Sydney: Ed mund Ca mpion & Gerard W indsor, 10 Michael McGirr Disease unease James Griffin looks at Th e Pacific Queensland : Peter Pi erce 11 Juliette Hughes Reading youth Islands: An Encyclopedia. United Kingdom Denis Minn ~ 0 1> 13 Robert Phiddian Think Adelaide South Ea st Asia ion Greenaway 32 Church, democracy and disse nt Jesuit Editorial Board Peter L' Estrange 51, Paul Rule reviews Paul Coll ins. Andrew Bullen 51, Andrew Hamilton Sl 34 The big picture Peter Steele Sl, Bi ll Uren SJ COLUMNS Patrons [ure ka Street gratefull y Tim Murray scrutinises Tim ackn owledges th e support of 7 Ca pital Letter Flannery's latest, The Eternal Frontier. C. and A. Carter; the tr ustees of the es tate Jacl< Waterford The political sieve of Miss M . Condon; W .P. & M.W. Gurry 36 Revising H o Eureka Street magazine, tSSN 103&- 1758, 1 0 Summa Theologiae Minh Bui questions William J. Au stralia Post Print Post approved Andrew Hamilton Where all roads lead Duiker's Ho Chi Minh. pp149 18 1/00314, is published ten times a yea r by Eureka Street Magaz in e Pty Lt d, 12 Bu sh Lawyer 38 H andle w ith ca re 300 Victoria Street Richmond VIC 3 121 Seamus O'Sh aughnessy A w ell -tuned Michael McGirr reviews Arnold PO Box 553, Richmond VI 112 1 Tel: Ol 94 27 73 11 Fax: 03 94 28 4450 cymbal Zable's Cafe Schehera zade and Renata email: eureka ®jespub. jesui t. org. au 21 Archimedes Singer's The Front of the Family. http://www.eurekastree t. corn .au/ Responsibi lit y for editorial con tent is Tim Thwaites Science burning Bush accepted by Andrew H amilton SJ. 42 W atching Brief 300 Victori a Stree t, Richmond POETRY Printed by Doran Printing Juliette Hughes N oonday devils 4& Industria l Drive, Braesidc VI 1195. 3 7 Peter Steele Gardener © Jesuit Publicat ions 2001 Unsolicit ed manusc ripts w ill be returned only if accompanied by a stamped. FEATU RES se lf- addressed envelope. R e ~u es t s for 20 D emocracy rul es ... OK? FLASH IN TH E PAN permi ss ion to reprin t mat erial from the rna gJzinc ~ h o ulcl be o1 ddrcss cd in w ri ting Moira Rayner reports on May Day 40 Reviews of the films Th e Man to th e ed it or. in London. Who Criedi Mulleti The Monkey's Ma ski One Hundred Steps and Thi s month : 25 Upping th e Aunty Cover des ign by Si ohhan Jackson Mark Armstrong takes issu e with State and Main. Cover photograph and photographs ppl, 4, 17 by Bi ll Thomas Quen tin Dempster's view of the ABC. Cartoon p9 by Trevor M cDonald 28 Operati o n Fiji Cart oons pp 18, .l8 by Dea n M oore SPECIFI C LEVITY Graphics pp6, 11 , 13, 14- 15, 20, Peter Davis gowns up with 26- 27, 30 by Siobhan Jackson Australi an volunteer surgeons. 43 Joan Nowotny Cryptic crossword COMMENT: l MORAG FRASER Marking time 0 ,oc me w'scR EUREKA STREET Mondays at Newman College The federal Labor Party cou ld be back in power by the end of 2001, but HOW WELL PREPARED IS LABOR FOR GOVERNMENT? A conversation w ith Shane Maloney (author of the Murray Whelan crime novels) and Brett Evans (a uthor of The Life and Soul of the Party: A Portrait of Modern Labor) Followed by open discussion. In conjunction w ith UNSW PRESS All welcome. Enquiries: Kirsty Grant (03 ) 9427 7311 4 Jun e 2001, 5.30pm for 6pm 887 Swanston Street, Parkville, Melbourne 4 EUREKA STREET • )UNE 2001 One of our cover articles this month, Kay out a vantage point for them, guarded it-and them Rollison's 'Pension prospects', deals with the history strenuously, wrapping her coat around their backs of provision for the poor in this country. Rollison when the wind cut down Bourke Street's canyon. It analyses the tension-currently revived- between the was a chance moment of friendship-across generation pension understood as the inherent right of a citizen and culture. The two children will grow up believing and the pension conceived as charity for the barely it to be the norm. deserving poor. See page 17. And opening in Melbourne during the week of Eurel OMMENT:2 ANDREW HAMILTON Taking the high road L,, A NZAC D.,, the Govcmm-Genml ;, ' leaders, Christian or other, it would seem, have much symbol. And like that of Anzac Day, vice-regal to offer society in this role. symbolism changes, fades and revives in unpredictable Some have argued against this on the grounds that ways. In the 1960s, it looked as if Anzac Day would it blurs the proper separation of state from church, die with the last of the soldiers who had fought at hard won over centuries. But from the point of view Gallipoli. Its place in Australian life is now assured. of the state, there is little to worry about. Churches A few years ago, it seemed that when the Governor now have little power and are marginal political General lost his vicarious crown, his Office would be influences. If an Archbishop renounced his respon a parking place for just another suit. Yet now it is sibilities during his term of office, he would seem as invested with an almost religious significance: he is eligible as any other citizen. called to mirror the nation to itself, to give expression From the point of view of the Christian church, to its soul. however, reservations arise, not from concern to While as constitutionalist the Prime Minister has maintain the separation of church and state, but from rejected this amplified role, as politician he has surely disquiet about the shape of the reintegration of church responded to it in appointing Archbishop Peter and state which is implicitly on offer. To accept that Hollingworth to the position. At a personal level, bishops and, by implication, churches should attend I welcome the appointment. If the nation's health is to souls while the state has responsibility for bodies diagnosed by its care for the unprivileged, Sir William is to accept a tendentious reading of history and to Deane has consistently urged preventative medicine. undermine the basis of being a church. The symbolic value of his words and gestures is carried The slogan, separation of church and state, on by Peter Hollingworth's past association with the implies a story according to which citizens were Brotherhood of St Laurence, a consistent advocate for liberated from the intrusion of the church on their a more just society. lives and pockets. Separation conferred on the state The linkage of the role of the Governor-General's the freedom to be secular. But the modern history of office with the nation's soul, however, invites broader the West can also be read in darker terms as the reflection on the Archbishop's nomination. Who could struggle of the state for sole rule over individuals' better mirror the nation to itself, we might ask, than bodily lives. With its victory over the churches, it won one committed to the spirit and skilled in articulating the power to legislate as it wishes, to administer laws what in functional terms cannot be said1 Spiritual as it wishes and, without constraint, to pass control VOLUME 11 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 5 over individuals' bodies to corporations as it wished. are maltreated and broken, as they are through torture If this sounds unduly bleak, consider the treat and arbitrary imprisonm ent, the body of Christ is m ent of asylum seekers. In Australia, th ey are injured. A church which does not publicly accept and imprisoned without trial, have been handed over to discharge its accountability to God for the broken profit-making corporations for their custody, and to body denies its own calling. foreign security firms for their deportation. Critics This charge falls particularly on episcopal are intimidated by the contracts which govern access churches, in which the bishop is central because he to centres and by threat of exclusion. The government is the head of the local body. He m ust articulate pub has also proposed that its officers should be able to licly the injuries done to the body. So as long as a restrain the bodies of asylum seekers, including bishop is known as such, he is claimed by this respon children, by manacles and drugs. It also routinely sibility. criticises judges when they give unwanted decisions, If this argument is correct, my reservations about and attacks judges when they criticise actions of the appointment of a bishop as Governor-General can government. be put in a hypothetical case. If the Bishop-become The question, therefore, is whether churches can Governor-General were called to address the Cabinet accept a symbolic settlem ent which offers them and departmental heads, should he draw attention responsibility for the soul, while leaving responsibility publicly in the name of the body of Christ to the for bodies to the government. maltreatment of the bodies of the asylum seekers1 The church is called to be publicly the body of Or should he be silent? If he does the former, will Christ, and is built around the m em ory of the broken this be tolerable to the state I And if he is silent, how body of Christ. It is to celebrate and take part in the can he be said to discharge his accountability within making whole of the body of humanity. When bodies Christ's body? • E,jOHN PAuc'' t 6 EUREKA STREET • jUNE 2001 The political sieve Jack Waterford INTHt VOLUME 11 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 7 LETTERS Eurel 8 EUREKA STREET • jUN E 2001 The Month 1s Traffic another economic upheaval. Eyes are being based on over 1000 interviews conducted Regional cast nervously northwards in anticipation across the country. Seventy- two per cent of of another currency slide if Japan's fin an respondents believe their country is head cial sector folds under the pressure of ing in the right direction, and 78 per cent reforms promised by incoming Prime are 'confident and happy' about Cambo in Minister Junichiro Koi zumi, or if Beijing dia's future. N early half indica ted that they some turmoil at the moment. The steely drops the value of the renminbi aga inst the had become personall y better off in the past successor to Joseph Estrada, Gloria Arroyo, strong US dollar. two years. For pure optimism these results, declared a state of rebellion that allowed With all that is going on in this part of one suspects, would put any straw poll of her to shift the supporters of the disgra ced the world it is surprising then that Cam clotcom millionaires from Silicon Vall ey in former leader from the gates of the presi bodia should be experiencing a stability it the shade. dential palace. Dem onstrations reached a has never seen in its m odern history. Since But while its neighbours are battling level of violence not seen in the Philippines Prime Minister Hun Sen took full control problems in the present cla y, it is the shadow ince Marcos. To invoke an Australian at the 1998 national elections, political of their nation's horrific past that most cliche, it was the 'battlers' venting their anger at the daughter of privilege who has put their working-class actor/president hero in jail. What has been seen in Manila may be just a taste of far greater upheaval to com e in Jakarta after the Indonesian National Assembly censured Presiclen t Abdurrahman Wahicl for a second time, in April. With his support in parliament dwindling and his determination to shrug off criticism as strong as ever, there seems little hope that Wahicl will see out his term. If he is removed, his supporters from Ea st Java may not be as easily dealt with as the protestors in Manila. Even if both leaders firmly establish their legitimacy, communal tension and separatist problem s will continue to dog them . In March ethnic violence em erged in the lums of Kuala Lumpur, with the fi rst clashes between Indians and Malays since the 1969 race riots. The government of Mahathir Mohammad is also busily locking up members of the party of former finance minister Anwar Ibrahim, using the draconian Internal Security Act that permits impris onment without charge. Meanwhile, support fr om the Malay majority is ebbing away. Elsewhere in the region, Burma remains violen ce has dropped, aid m oney h as troubles Cambodians. Specifically, whether in the grip of the military, with no speeding started fl owing again and high-profil e fo rmer Khmer Rouge should be bro ught to up of dialogue between the generals and delegations have vi sited. In April the Cam justice fo r the genocide that left at least one Aung San Suu Kyi, or any reduction in the bodian government even won praise fro m million dead, or whether their crimes should drug trade or human rights abu c . Thailand one of its chief critics in the past, Human be fo rgotten. is not as serene as it could be either, with Ri ghts Wa tch , for providing refuge to In January both houses of parliament the newly elected Premier, Thaksin Shina m embers of an ethnic minority fl eeing passed a law that would enable the setting watra, fa cing rem oval for a false a sets persecution in Vietnam . up of a UN-backecl Khmer Rouge Tribunal. cl eclara tion. The best indication yet that Cambodia Since then the law has been in limbo; the And running undern ea th it all, like a is improving has been the recent release of government says it has been assessing subterra nean fa ultlinc, is the threa t of a survey by the Centre for Advanced Study, whether or not it is constitutional. Hun Sen VOLUME 11 NUMBER 5 • EU REKA STR EET 9 has said that trying Ieng Sary, 'Brother Number 3', in such a tribunal would mean 1 a e war. Sary was granted a pardon after organ ising a mass defection of Khmer Rouge forces to the government in 1996, and is one of half a dozen Khmer Rouge leaders from Pol Pot's inner circle still alive. The Prime Minister has also stated that a version of Where all roads lead the law passed by parliament would be enacted before an aid-donors' meeting is held in Japan later this month. While opinion is divided on how best to L ITTLE SIGNPOSTS ALREADY mark the beginning and end of this church year. At deal with the past, there is also the clcsi rc of its beginning, Fr Jacques Dupuis, after an investigation sloppily prosecuted by many to fine\ out what motivated the Khmer the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was exonerated and encouraged Rouge's butchery. Why did they kill somanyl to pursue his work and inquiries. In November, the Social Justice Statement on This debate is mirrored by another: what rural and regional Australia will be issued. to do with the piles of skulls and bones left These signposts seem to point in different directions. But all roads go around the country as reminders of Khmer through globalisation and its cultural effects. Dupuis, for example, was drawn Rouge brutality1 Buddhists believe that the to write about the uniqueness of Christ, and so about the relationship of Chris spirit of a person is in limbo until their tianity to other faiths. This question is urgent and inescapable, because through remains arc properly cremated. The Prime immigration and through information we arc in daily contact with other Mini ter has promisee\ a referendum on the religions. As we do not live within a simple Christian world, we must reckon issue. Perhaps it will be conducted next year with other faiths. along with long-awaited commune elec The reckoning takes place most extensively in spirituality, and not in tions. The stranglehold that Hun Sen's CPP theology. In spirituality faith is given practical shape. Faith, personal lives and party has on local politics has been the culture intersect. It has always been a battleground. Amulets, blessings, funeral cornerstone of his success. If opposition rites, attending the theatre, trendy wigs, springs of water, liturgical dancing groups mount a serious challenge there is and the enneagram are just a few of the adaptations of culture within Christian no doubt that more spirits will have to be life that have caused controversy. But mutual exchange is as inevitable in laid to rest. religious practice as in commerce. We need only remember the willow plate. Nonetheless, the survey's results paid Samuel Bow adapted Chinese patterns for the European market. After his success, tribute to the desire of Cambodian voters to Chinese potters adapted his patterns to sell to Europe. Their work in turn determine their future. While less than 50 influenced later English potters. Was it finally more than a pun to identify such per cent thought the upcoming elections would be fair, 97 per cent said they intended china with China 1 to vote. -Jon Greenaway In spirituality, there is the same challenge to identity. Is there a point, for example, at which a Catholic nourished by Buddhist meditation, Jungian archetypes, New Age crystals, earth religions, corporate retreats with ritual war Disease games, earth religions and fertility cults, not to mention Wesleyan hymn singing and Pentecostal prayer, ceases to be Catholic? unease And so to regional Australia. A treatment of it will explain the effects of YEARS as a veterinary surgeon, globalisation on the country, notably the centralisation of ownership and the Malcolm Ramsay has seen a lot more than reduction of services. Churches are not immune. As clergy and services are cats and dogs. In the early '90s, he worked increasingly withdrawn from small centres, each denomination offers, at most, in Cambodia. There he contributed to the very occasional celebrations. If people wish to support their fragile local com early stages of the rebuilding of a rural munity, they will be drawn to inter-denominational practice and a more eclectic economy which had been ravaged by war. spirituality. Can they maintain their Anglican, Uniting Church or Catholic Among other things, he trained local fanners in animal husbandry. identity? One way to protect identity is to define some practices as Christian or 'I first came across foot-and-mouth Catholic, and to proscribe others. This rarely works, for exclusion tends to disease in Cambodia, ' says Ramsay, exclude the Gospel. A better way may lie in hospitality. Good hospitality explaining that most villages know the presupposes a relaxed place in which we are at home, so that we can readily disease to occur every three to five years, invite others in and accept invitations to go out. But to welcome others and be sometimes affecting many animals, some welcomed by others on their terms requires a strong sense of our own identity. times only a few. Foot-and-mouth disease So we return to the challenge of globalisation: to sustain and empower (FMD) is endemic in Cambodia, which small communities within their own tradition, so that they can offer and receive means the virus is moving constantly hospitality. • through the livestock populations. 'It is just one of a number of serious livestock Andrew Hamilton sr is Emel{a Street's publisher. health problems that periodically disrupt 10 EUREKA STREET • jUNE 2001 village life. FMD cau es erious hardship inspecting up to 3000 pigs, 800 sheep and 'One of the hardest things for farmers when it kills young stock or when draught 300 cattle in a day. It was a week before he and vets alike was the sense of great waste animals go lame.' found FMD. First thing on a Tuesday where herds and fl ocks of apparently healthy Vaccine is not widely available in Cam morning, he returned to a farm he had animals were destroyed. This becam e wide bodia and is expensive. It provides only six visited three days earlier. The fa rm was spread wh en the 'firebreak cull' of stock on months' immunity so is only useful when spread over five separate premises. neighbouring properties was introduced in combined with disease monitoring and 'The previous surveilla nee visit had April. Although we all knew the cull was livestock movem ent controls. 'Vaccination taken all day and I'd come away feeling fo r the greater good of the industry, the can be used strategically as part of an somewhat chilled. My speech had been sense of waste was deeply sh ocking as barn eradication program. This was demon slurred by the end of the da y clu e to a mix of after barn was fill ed with dead animals left strated successfully by Indonesia whose to rot until disposal could be organised.' last reported case was in 1983 . In Cambodia, Ramsay says that all the fa rmers he however, the eradication of FMD won't encountered, whether they had anim als eventuate until the government has an destroyed or not, felt caught up in a national improved capacity to m onitor disease and crisis, one he hopes Australia never has to control livestock m ovements.' contend with. More rece ntly, back in Australia, 'It was the older farmers who coped less Ram say has been working for the Victorian well. I heard the sam e tear-filled story from government in a program design ed to dea l the 50- and 60-year-old farmers as they with the spread of Jolme's disease among exhaustion and mild hypothermia. At least described concern for their children who sheep and cattle. However unfamiliar the fo r this visi t I was wearing some extra farmed with them and who looked to the condition may be in suburbia, it's not hard layers of clothing. I began with an inspec fa rm for a future livelihood. The 20- and 30- to get sheep farmers talking about Johne's tion of the dairy herd and chatted with the year-old children, for their part, seemed disease. The symptoms of Ovine Johne's herdsmen at the first premises. I then m ore stoical and pragm atic, keen to get the Disease (OJD) are subtle. 'FMD is basically inspected numerous pens of ewes with gri sly work finish ed and start reconstruct a loud disease, quick to announce itself lambs. N o evidence of FMD. When we ing their lives.' -Michael McGirr upon arrival,' says Ram say. 'OJD in com arrived at the second premises the sleet was pari son is a quiet and insidious disease, coming down at 30 degrees fr om horizontal which can take years to reveal itself.' and ice was building up on the straw laid on Reading Ram say explains that som e farmers debate the driveway entrance. I inspected a barn whether it is really a disease and worth with nine- month-old h eifers and steers and youth worrying about. Yet the discovery of OJD in noticed one steer slightly depressed with a a fl ock means that those sheep m ay only be little fro thy saliva at the m outh. All other A GNES NI EWENHU ISEN is careful never to sold for slaughteri they cannot be used for stock in the barn appeared normal. Three of patronise people, particularly young ones, breeding. This dramatica lly affe cts the value u s pushed the steer up against the wall so who don't like reading. As Manager of the of the livestock. Ramsay has found himself I could examine it. Parting the lips revealed Australian Centre fo r Yo uth Literature, she in the difficult position of breakin g a number of vesicles in the mouth. When led a raft of partners in a nation wide research unwelcome news to farmers. I tried to extend the tongue, the epithelium project, Yo ung A ustralians Reading to find In March this year, Ramsay was in Devon began to tear. I had n o doubt that I was out what was needed to make young people in England, also breaking bad news. He looking at early classic FMD lesions.' want to read. The project was partly funded arrived when the outbreak of FMD was in Following instructions, Ram say con by the Australia Council and undertaken its early stages. He was part of a group of 20 tacted the MAFF (the Ministry for Agricul by the Sydney-based Woolcott Research Australian veterinary and technical staff . ture, Forestry and Fishing) and had the Pty Ltd. The results make one optimistic: 'There's an agreem ent between Britain, diagnosis confi rmed. of the 801 students (primary and second Canada, N ew Z ealand and Australia to 'We immediately shot the steer u sing ary) not on e wanted to be seen as belonging provide assistance in the case of livestock the farm er's gun and I took samples of to a group of reluctant readers: even if disease emergencies in those countries. epithelium and fluid from the vesicles. We reading was uncool in their circle, it was That's what was being honoured when then disinfected the area, covered the head much more uncool to be categorised as a AFFA (Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries in a bag and dragged the animal into a pen non -reader. Australia) and state agricultural depart to separate it from the others. Based on my But if kids would like to be seen to be m ents asked their staff for expressions of investigations, the MAFF decided to slaugh readers, turning that into books read is the interest at the end of February. I believe ter stock on all fiv e premises belonging to challenge, and the report has numerous there was a huge response and I was one of this farmer and his extended fa mily.' suggestions about m aking reading m ore the lucky ones to be sent with the first Ramsay says that the fo llowing seven attractive to the young. These all would batch. We were replaced by fr esh crews days were the hardest week's work of his life. require some level of commitment and when our month's tour of duty was over. 'I was responsible for managing all fi ve investment: book covers designed to attract We were divided into fo ur groups and sent premises as we assessed, valued stock, the young, teen magazines publishing book to Cumbria, Staffordshire, Devon and slaughtered, disposed of the rem ains and extracts, libraries making som e concession N ewcastle.' disinfected.' to youth needs (teenagers are unimpressed Ramsay was put to work looking for the He supervised the burning of hundreds by the adult section and scornful of the disease. Almost immediately, he began of carcasses. children 's section ). The whole tone of the VOLUME 1 1 N UMBER 5 • EU REKA STR EET 11 report is one of intensity, urgency: despite Niewenhuiscn's tolerance of reluctant readers, she is trying hard to win them over. Should we be worried about the reluc A well-tuned tant readers? One thing the research did not explore was the nexus, if any, between being a reader for pleasure and being a cymbal success at school work in general; school grades were not revealed among the detailed profiles obtained. Some kids arc just not going to read much beyond their set texts and manuals. S HORTLY AFTER THE RECENT US presidential election, Time magazine published Some would rather be doing something an essay extolling the ability of Chief Ju stice Rehnquist to maintain public else, and that may well be just as valuable confidence in the US Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was able to come out as reading for pleasure. Scientists, athletes, of the confusion and doubtful legitimacy of the Florida disputed returns litigation artisans: the latest John Marsden might not not only unblemished but, according to Time, with its reputation enhanced. be as important to them as it is to the publishers, the English teachers, the librarians. Chief Justice Rehnquist has notoriously hard-Right political views, a do Niewcnhuiscn is not as worried as some two other judges on the Court (of nine judges, only three could be classified as librarians and teachers about this: 'They liberals). Nonetheless, the Court has widespread public support, even among worry about the young men,' she says, 'th ey Democratic voters. The reason, according to Time? Mystery. Rehnquist has refused try to pick up the skateboarders.' But she to allow the court's proceedings to become a media circus like the O.J. Simpson remembers that in the 1960s many would trial. By keeping the televisions out it has maintained its sphinx-like dignity. finish school at 14 and ge t a job. 'Yes, I'm One of the perennial themes in judicial conference is the tension between committed to reading and the importance judicial independence, accountability, and the need to inform the public about of reading, to promoting the value of our work and maintain confidence in the administration of justice. reading-cultural, emotional, educational. From time to time, politicians and the tabloid press attack the judiciary, or But at the same time I think it's very impor members of it. In my experience, the response of judges to such attacks is alm ost tant to keep a clear perspective and not alway defensive-a great deal of anguished complaint about the unfairness of our make assumptions that people who arc not attackers, but not much thought given to formulating more positive approaches. regular readers are not valuable to society.' She is very sure, however, that we would In 1625, Francis Bacon, who had been a judge, published his essay On sec more committed readers if the He commented, 'An over-speaking judge is no well-tuned cymbal.' Judicature. conditions were right. 'A lot of potential But what is an over-speaking judge? readers aren't well-served by their school Last year, Justice Michael Kirby told a story about giving a speech in experience, their libraries and families.' Zimbabwe on 'Breast Milk Substitutes and the Law'. It prompted a fellow judge Schools need, thereportpointsout, to make to ask, 'Kirby, is there nothing you will not speak about?' more time in the secondary curriculum for Kirby recently spoke publicly in support of the concept of public education. free reading in the way primary schools do. He ventured, in diplomatic fashion, that public education ought not to be This, however, might be difficult to diminished in favour of funding private schools. For this he was attacked both achieve in the bulging timetables generated by the Prime Minister and the federal Attorney-General, neither of whom by the frantic push for subject credibility appeared to have read his speech, only a selective and somewhat sensational that occurred in the aftermath of the ised newspaper report of it. They claimed he was playing partisan politics. He Blackburn Report. In the rush to cover all the requirements and keep an exhaustive responded by correcting them in a media release. record of having clon e so, there is hardly Kirby presents a challenge to the traditional notion of judge as 'man of time actually to teach, let alone develop mystery'. He is the antithesis of the approach lauded by Time magazine. He is any depth in the tuclcnts' experience of the most prolific writer of speeches, articles and essays the Australian judiciary literature. The slashing of staff and resources has ever produced and he has been critici eel as one who has no unexpressed made it harder than ever to teach reluctant thoughts. As his self-deprecating story about Zimbabwe shows, he is aware of some students properly, just as the pressure was of the drawbacks of prolixity. Nonetheless, he seems to take the view that it is put on to keep them all at school till Year to the public's advantage to know what he thinks about all manner of things. 12. The kind of disruption that used to be Will we increase the quality of justice by being mum out of court? There is caused mainly by clisaffectecl Year Nines no single or simple answer. One magistrate attacked by a talkback radio jock could now persist into senior classes; com rang up to defend himself. Others have taken defamation proceedings. Kirby pliance had to be enforced by the loading in puts out the occasional media release. Attorneys-General used to speak for the of compulsory work requirements that meant enormous worldoacls for teacher and judiciary; not now. Most judges think, 1Today' news, tomorrow1s fish-and-chip student. Reading for pleasure was always a wrappers' and get on with their work. The debate continues. • luxury for senior students: now it's a won Seamus O'Shaughnessy is a NSW magistrate. der any have the time, even if they have the 12 EUREKA STREET • )UNE 200 1 desire. The report does not venture into synthesised, amplified, and expressed. They than spectacular. While speakers such as such territory: it focuses on smaller, more are the place where identity, opinion and Bishop John Spong, Vandana Shiva, Paul achievable goals than the rebuilding of an mythic n arratives clash in a conflict Davies, Margaret Wertheim, Naomi Klein, entire education system that has been cut witnessed and judged by the citizens and Phillip Adams, Saskia Sasscn, Raimond to the m arrow. their leaders. Gaita and Tim Flannery do exist on the Young Australians Reading points out Every culture has a colosseum; every intellectual edges of global celebrity, they that students often do not enjoy prescribed culture needs one. The spectacular expres will be talking to an intelligent public, not texts, and that 'as this often becomes all the sion of public emotion is part of human performing in some sort of Disney on Ideas. book reading that they do in later secondary history, and will remain so until the They will appear on their own, and with years, it makes all their reading experiences (unlikely and undesirable) day we evolve less well-known thinkers. They will be less enj oyable'. It recommends better selec into entirely rational animals. The colos asked to explain their special subjects, and tion of texts; this is only common sense seum is part of civilisation, but so to address more unpredictable ask any parent who has had to help a is, or should be, the forum. And it questions. disgusted child slog through thin, dreary is the forum that is too little visited As politics has long been little 'issues-based' novellas. at present. The spectacle of staged more than a gladiatorial battle, Publishers are asked to help by market conflict and simulated clarity of none of the speakers is a presently ing their wares more effectively, but as emotion has taken over too much , an active politician. The themes anyone who has read Hilary McPhee's Other space. Too much work is done by relate to current concerns-water, People's Words will now know, they also charisma and too little by open_ population, drugs, trade, recon need to select better works and edit them discussion. The price of this - ciliation-and to intellectual properly. Media campaigns with 'famous imbalance is high, for we risk 't!!::~:4-!!JIILII'~ inquiry on the longue duree- role m odels' have worked in Canada; paralysis on many of the m ost cosm o logy, e thics, biology, Niewenhuisen spoke glowingly of the surf pressing issues we face if we approach them ecology. However, the important thing is club that had gone crazy for Harry Potter. in postures of ritualised combat. that these explorations will not be put into The Potter phenomenon has educators and From 12 to 15 July this year, a bit of open the straitjacket of immediate 'relevance' book people in general scrambling to see if space for the pursuit of ideas will exist in that go verns the news media. When panels the m agic can spread. Will the reluctant Adelaide, at the Festival of Ideas. Thinkers talk about water, they will address earth reader who embraced the Potter series now from around Australia and the world will science, religious symbolism, patterns of be primed for other titles, other authors1 converge for three days and four nights of human settlem ent (like water in cities, or Young Australians Rea ding has made a discussion under the broad them es of water, in the Murray-Darling basin), and dangers decent diagnosis and suggested a course pollution, reconciliation, addiction/ in places like the Mekong delta and the of treatment. The bean-counters and the intoxication, and cosmology. All the day Middle East, where water wars seem almost policy-makers will now have to deal time sessions will be fr ee and, if the inevitable. And in all the themes there will with it. - Juliette Hughes experience of the first festival in 1999 is be similar opportunities for refl ection over anything to go by, the crowds will be large. time, and across intellectual disciplines Thinlz The event is modelled on the perennially that h ave become too specialised to successful Writers' Week at the Adelaide communicate widely on their own. Festival, and has a broader canvas of the life Finally, all this intellectual pleasure and Adelaide of the mind to work on: from physics to exploration takes place in open, uncor W ERE ARE THE public forums that work? politics, from religion to microbiology, and poratised space. Of course there are Where can ideas be discussed civilly and from current affairs to archaeology. sponsors, but they are m ostly government intelligently? It is the sort of thing Adelaide does departments of semi-public institutions like The public sphere in Australia is bigger really well. In a way, things like this are the the local universities, and their promo than it has ever been. Through talkback ripest fruits of the 'big country town' feel tional works arc blessedly obscure. One of radio, market research, television, radio, that Adelaide is so easily and ch eaply the things that m ost struck me abou t the email, speci alist m agazines and websites, m ocked for. This is a town on a human 1999 Festival was the relative lack of banner newspapers, public m eetings, and many scale, where people expect to be able to advertising. We ge t so used to having every oth er m eans, the opportunities for the meet and mix with the visitors from piece of space around us sold to som eone for expression of feelings and opinions are overseas and interstate. Indeed, people feel marketing. We need civic paces outside almost endless. And yet n o-one seems to a responsibility as well as a right to exercise this bombardment, outside the insistence think that public debate is in a healthy their moral and intellectual citizenship. that we arc on this planet only to consume condition. They are not so disabled as people from more stuff. This is one. My feeling is that the reason for this is larger cities by the sense of being one among -Robert Phiddian that nea rly all public di cussion has been millions. drawn into the realm of spectacle, into the If this makes the Festival sound as This month's contributors: Jon Greenaway colosseum. Spectacle, cathartic emotion, worthy as a bowl of home-made muesli and is Eureka Street's South East Asia cor exemplary m yths, symbols, branding: these as snug as a nice cup of tea, then that would respondent; Michael McGirr is the author are the thing that postmodcrn m edia are be a distortion, but not a wholly groundless of Things You Get for Free and Th e Good good at. They present things at speed, and one. There are mindful pleasures on offer, Life; Juliette Hughes is a freelance writer; for m aximum impact. They are the opportunities to listen, think, and talk about Robert Phiddian is senior lecturer in English colosseum where public emotion can be issu es. The process is deliberative rather at the Flinders University of South Australia. V OLUME 11 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 13 Citing Hiroshima THE WORLD:l Th e bombing of Hiroshima permanently changed human existence from a fact into a question. In Japan, memorials loom large but survivor testimonies go out of print, and a third of the country's power is provided by nuclea r reactors. Robin Gerster watches the dust and the ironies settle in th is changeable nation. 'Delicious, delicious, ' said Japan ese Prime Minister national art-form to rival il 14 EUREKA STREET • j UN E 2001 though it is, is engaged in a losing battle against an overwhelmingly pro-nuclear political/bureaucratic establishment and a general population that doesn't appear to give a damn. Except, that is, when it comes to Hiroshima, or rather, what might be called the symbolic 'Hiroshima', for the city has become so connotative of nuclear holocaust that it subsumes the later (bigger) explosion in Nagasaki. As John Whittier Treat observes in his study of Japanese responses to 'the Bomb', Writing Ground Zero (1995), Hiroshima is not merely a place, but a 'trope' of 'a new fact within the human condition'. It is not lost on the Japanese that that 'fact'-the capacity of the human race for self-extinction-was validated over their own sacred soil. If, as its famous historian Saburo Ienaga has The dropping of written, Japan suffers from a 'collective amnesia' about the actions of its military forces in the Asia /the Bomb / is Pacific from the time of the invasion of China in 1931 through t o 1945, then 'Hiroshima', the mythic, now historically martyred city, is largely responsible. 'The Bomb' clouded Japan's wartime culpability; it provided the distant/ and excuse for escape to the high moral ground. The common Japanese equation of Hiroshima with popular fiction Auschwitz as the two great human horrors is instructive. It is a convenient historical coupling, and film have so which turns the Japanese from aggressors into innocent, sacrificial victims of racism: the worked over the Jews of the Asia-Pacific. idea of /nuclear prosecuted war criminals like Tojo, and members of P.ESENT-DA v HIROSH IMA is a pleasant city. Its streets the vicious Kempeitai, the Japanese secret police. N o are wide and tree-lined, it has excellent public holocaus( as to wonder that som e people, even those of us with an amenities, picturesque tramcars and a superb setting affection for Japan, rail at the arrogance of its on a fan of several rivers flowing down to the oyster make it seem political and cultural elites and condemn its beds of the Inland Sea. It also continues to cash in on capacity for complacency. its wartime notoriety by promoting itself as a 'Mecca comfortingly of World Peace' (a semiotically confusing descrip L E OFFIC IAL REACTION to the 'criticality incident' (a tion- but this is Japan) . While it is impossible not to fictional. euphemism for near-disast er) at the Tokaimura feel sympathy for the city's 'bombed', the so-called uranium processing plant north-east of Tokyo in late hibalmsha, the ridiculous claims som etimes made on Nowhere is this September 1999 could hardly be more illustrative of their behalf provide ample ammunition to critics of Japanese heedlessness. At least the then Prime what Ian Buruma has called the 'Hiroshima cult', nuclear amnesia Minister Obuchi could justify his m elon-eating many of whom are inveterate Japan-bash ers. Sig exploit (unrelated, it is reliably reported, to the fatal nificantly, these claims are usually made not by the more troublingly stroke that ended his life just a few months later) on victims themselves, but by outside observers. Werner the basis that it m aintained national morale. The Wells' Foreword to Michihiko Hachiya's Hiroshima evident than in Japanese landscape is, after all, pockmarked by more Diary (1955), the journal of a physician who survived than 50 nuclear reactors, which produce over a third the blast and treated its victims, is a case in point. japan. of Japan's gigantic electricity output-one wouldn't A surgical consultant to the Atomic Bomb Casualty want to frighten the horses. But there was hardly a Commission, Wells makes the startling claim that squeal of protest in response to the Tokaimura the bombing of Hiroshima was different from the accident, either during its immediate aftermath or in saturation bombing of Japanese and German cities in the months that followed, as Japan's appalling the final days of the war, because those who were negligence in monitoring its nuclear industry came killed in the latter attacks ' had the comfort of to light. The lack of reaction is staggering-even by knowing they were being killed by more or less the standards of Japanese apathy. And this in a country familiar and acceptable weapons.' which sets so much store by its nuclear victimhood Yet there is no denying it: Hiroshima was differ in early August 1945. ent. The very word seem s to encapsulate the crucial The relatively small and splintered Japanese issue and ongoing crisis of our postmodern age- the anti-nuclear movem ent, vociferous and committed triumph of technology over human flesh-and-blood. VOLUME 11 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 15 As Arthur Koestler and many others have observed, individuals and communitie by such colossal whereas humans have always had to live with the upheaval. In other words, the spiritual wreckage of it certainty of their individual deaths, since Hiroshima, all, evident even as Japan frantically rebuilt in the humanity has to live with the prospect of its post-war years. The quantity of Hiroshima writing is annihilation as a biological species. immense, and testimony to the determination of the Yet it is not this apocalyptic scenario that most survivors to describe the indescribable. Yet, with the concerns the visitor to the city's commemorative exception of Masuji Ibuse's canonised novel Black facilities located in and around 'Peace Park', the Rain (and Ibuse wasn' t even a hibakusha), the epicentre of the Hiroshima cult. What impresses is writing has had little impact. Amazingly, in his the impact of 'the Bomb' on the individuals who incisive study of atomic representations, Nuclear experienced it, who can't have been prepared for what Ciiticism (1993 ), Ken Ruthven ignores the Japanese descended upon them from the blue. It is fatuous to perspective except for a single fleeting reference to try to m easure the relative awfulness of individual Black Rain. Did Ruthven consider it irrelevant, when horrific events. But when, in his meditation on the compared with how the spectre of omnicide has moral dimensions and legacy of the bombing, haunted the Western imagination? But Hiroshima Hiroshima Notes (1965), the Nobel Prize-winner literature has little status in the metropolitan literary Kenzaburo Oe describes Hiroshima as 'the extremity cultures of Japan either, being considered a marginal of human misery', it is difficult to argue with him. genre. Much of it is now out of print, and is regarded One might, however, want to argue with som e coolly by a public not wishing to be again confro nted aspects of Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Museum. with the horrors of war, and perhaps unwilling to face Foreign visitors often complain that the Museum's up to the ironic consequences of its present depend contextualising of the historical circumstances ence on nuclear energy. surrounding the use of 'the Bomb' is cursory at best, The virtual erasure of atom bomb literature from evasive at worst. The part of the exhibition which the critical record is both curious and regrettable, reveals its effects on the human life of the city is because Hiroshima writing should command our notable for its exemplary documentary emphasis. The attention. Nuclear weapons, as Margaret Thatcher displays arc simple but eloquent-a watch stopped at once remarked, 'can't be uninvcnted'. The Cold War the precise second of the explosion, a photograph of a may be over, but the nuclear threat remains as deadly kimono pattern imprinted on a young woman's back, as ever, and has become menacingly dispersed across a little boy's twisted bicycle. A glass showcase of the globe. Yet complacency, or what Ken Ruthven fingernails and shreds of skin kept by the mother of a calls 'nuclear amnesia', prevails. The dropping of 'the teenage victim (his name was N oriaki Tcshima) is Bomb' is now historically distant, and popular fiction accompanied by the legend: 'Suffering from terrible and film have so worked over the idea of 'nuclear thirst, he is said to have tried to suck the pus from holocaust' as to make it seem comfortingly fictional. his raw, nail-less fingers. ' That this seems to be an Nowhere is this nuclear amnesia more troub unnecessarily grisly elaboration points to the real lingly evident than in Japan. Copies of Blacl< Rain, problem with Hiroshima's commemorative identity Hiroshima Notes and Nagai's The Bells of Nagasaki too much detail looks suspiciously exploitative. This might be available in the tourist kiosk in Hiroshima's is a general problem with war testimonies, especially Peace Park, but it is the T-shirts sh owing that in literature. The elaboration of war horrors has a fashionably iconic image of the silhouetted, skull-like potentially anaesthetic effect on the reader, hardening 'Genbaku Domu', or Atom Bomb Dome, that the rather than arousing sensibilities. But at least British sightseers want. 'Too provincial', says the Japanese World War I writers, for example, or even Jewish Holo literary establishment of the collective Hiroshima caust survivors, had a textual and cultural tradition testim on y. Of course it is heavily localised, for what upon which to draw in constructing their cataclysmic can be more immediate than the wholesale destruc narratives. The inscribers of 'Hiroshima' had no such tion of one's home environment? But it also share: te precedents. Not surprisingly, they continually com universal paradigm of the journey, albeit of a singularly plain that they lack the words, the literary language, domestic nature. A journey in a city changed in a flash; to describe what they saw and endured. a difficult journey into an uncertain future, under Nevertheless, what Hiroshima survivor- writers taken in a sea of ashes; a journey into the unknown, such as Tamiki Hara and Yoko Ota, and also Nagasaki's as radiation illnesses lurked and progressed; a journey great, tragic memorialist Takashi Nagai-do com to recover human dignity. Reading the accounts is a municate are those intangible things no museum can harrowing journey too, vicariously, but nonetheless adequately exhibit. Not least, they express the demor utterly, engaging. Most of all, the significance of alising effects of so much random human slaughter, Hiroshima writing 'travels' across time and place. It the impact of such sights as old neighbours fighting is as compelling now as it ever was. • over possession of unidentifiable corpses presumed to be family members, the irreparable 'cracks and Robin Gerster's latest book is Legless in Ginza: fi ssures' (as Nagai called them) created among both Orientating Japan (Melbourne University Press). 16 EUREKA STREET • j UNE 200"1 Are we doomed to repeat hi stori ca l injustices to those w ho are poor or simply old? as ks Kay Rollison. I T'S NOT WH>ONAm these d'ys to who had flocked there in the wake of the hom es, and gave out 'relief' in the form consider that we have anything to learn gold discoveries reached 'the sunset of of goods, orders on shopkeepers and from history. Nonsense-of course their days'. The 1890s were also a period occasionally money to as i t those unable history illuminates matters of current of economic difficulty, as the colony to fend for themselves. In addition to gov importance. For example, we can learn struggled to overcome not only boom and ernment, and in some cases municipal much about the attitudes and values still bust, but also drought and the decline of funding, charitable organisations got at work in the current debate about the the mining industry. There were stories their money from private fundraising. welfare system by looking at the intro in the press about destitute old people Ladies' committees were in the forefront duction and operation of old-age pensions being sent to jail because of lack of other of charity work, and businessm en could, in Victoria. From that historical perspec provision for them. by the donation of a guinea, acquire the tive we can see how those who saw Provision for the poor was sporadic, right to send charitable cases t o the pensions as a right inherent in citizen disorganised and inadequate. In the organisation of their patronage. This ship all but lost out to those who wanted absence of a poor law, the state's cont structure dealt with the destitute of all to limit the cost of the nascent pension ribution to dealing with the destitute was ages, though the aged made up the largest system , because they saw it as expensive to run a benevolent asylum and an number of inmates of asylums and homes. charity for the barely deserving poor. No immigrants' home in Melbourne, and to Charities divided the poor into the wonder history is unfashionable. contribute funds to som e of the many deserving and the undeserving. Charity By the turn of the 19th century, charities run by churches or local com was supposed to be for the deserving poor. Victoria was experiencing a significant munities. These in turn operated local Thinking was dominated by the fear that ageing of its population, as immigrants benevolent asylums, hospitals or cottage giving charity to all destitute people VOLUME 11 N UMB ER 5 • EUREKA STREET 17 would encourage impostors, sap indepen obligation in place. In order to receive they saw as another form of outdoor dence and reward vice and idleness. Being assistance, the destitute had either to relief, would discourage the aged poor destitute was not enough; it was also prove they were of good character, had from seeking employment and be wasted necessary to be destitute through no fault worked hard in the past, or were now on drink. They preferred the existing of one's own. In practice, however, some willing to work. Those best able to show options of cottage homes or institutions thing still had to be done for the feckless this could stay in their own homes and for the aged poor. Others, however, agreed and drunken. So outdoor relief [food or in control of their own lives; those less that a pension would maintain independ other goods from a charity) and cottage able to show this ended up in an ence and be cheaper than putting people homes were provided for the deserving institution. in institutions. poor, and asylums were used to house the These opinions often reflected undeserving. Asylums were unpopular, A GAINST THIS background, the Vic witnesses' views of the causes of poverty. having an air of the workhouse; inmates torian parliament established a Royal Many of the charity-workers attributed were less than citizens, and lost the right Commission in 1896 to inquire into 'the poverty to individual improvidence or to vote. But hospitals and asylums were desirability of provision being made by misfortune; no doubt they saw a lot of also used to house those destitute aged, or under the control of the State for the this in their work. But other witnesses, whether deserving or undeserving, who maintenance of the aged poor, either by and the advanced liberals who m ade up could not look after them selves. pensions, insurance, or some other mode the m ajority of the Commission, consid Decisions about whether applicants of relief'. The Commission did not wish ered that low wages, lack of employment for charity were deserving or undeserv to replace the existing charitable system. and-with the mining industry in mind ing were made by those who ran the Its task was to consider extending assist technological change were m ajor factors. ch arit ies, often advised by the local ance to a significant number of aged Individuals were still expected to struggle ladies' committees. Being 'deserving' Victorians who were believed to live in to be self-supporting, but it was not usually meant being of good moral char poverty, but to be too proud to use the entirely their own fault if they ended up acter, and having been hard-working. The existing charitable system. Its delibera destitute . Such people deserved the Salvat ion Army seems to have seen tions were less about the existence of such support of the state in their old age things a little differently; they substituted a group, which was assumed, and more becau se of their contribution to its a work test for a moral character, giving about how its needs could bes t be met. development by a lifetime of work. assistance to anyone who agreed to work Many of the witnesses who appeared This view was reflected in the recom in their institution-sorting papers and before the Commission were providers of mendations of the Commission. It rags, for exam ple. charity who judged the situation on the rejected the otherwise attractive option By the end of the 19th century, there basis of the group they were familiar of insurance as taking too long to help was a well-developed system of mutual with, and argued that a pension, which the existing poor. It also rejected the proposal of the Salvation Army that ' the religious bodies' should tender for the support of the aged poor-a proposal with a curiously contemporary ring today. It opted instead to extend the role of the state by directly paying an old-age pen sion of lO shillings a week. In the Commission's view, 'the ethics of this question made clear the obligation of the State to ensure that the worn out wealth-creating machines who have contributed to its development ... shall receive the means of subsistence and comfort'. It seemed a victory for those who thought that cit izens had a right to support from the state in their old age. But it was a highly quali fi ed victory, for many of the features of charitable provision were carried over into the new system. 'Poor' meant desti tute; applicants could own no 18 EU REKA STREET • j UN E 2001 more than £ 10 worth of property. There pensions-down to a maximum of eight m orally regenerati ve power of work, was no expectation that the aged would shillin gs, th en seven sh illings. The whether or not it's really available for the retire from work and get a pension; the conservative Irvine government, which unemployed, or even desirable for single pension would only be paid if they could openly considered the pension a 'chari parents and people with disabilities. show that they couldn't get work. Appli table grant', even for the deserving, There is the sam e fear of fraud and cants with an income of less than imposed further restrictions characteris invasive scrutiny of claims that makes 10 shillings a week could get a part tic of the charity m odel, requiring a welfare feel like charity. And there is the pension. The distinction was maintained successful applicant to be 'physically or same sense that welfare recipients are to between the deserving and undeserving m entally incapable of m aintaining blam e for their situation, and that they poor- though the Commission called himself' and requiring an applicant's could easily get off welfare if they only them 'less deserving'. Only the deserving children to prove that they could not tried a bit harder. could get a pension, the less deserving support their aged parent. Any property Lacking now, as then, is an understand being institu tionalised, with the loss of that pensioners owned reverted to the ing that unemploym ent and insecure rights and dignity that entailed. T o be a st ate on their death, another feature employm ent, low wages and rapid tech 'deserving' good citizen required not only common in the charity model. Irvine also nological change create the need for tangible evidence of 'care and prudence' capped the amount that could be spent welfare. And given the current unwilling such as saving bank deposits, but also on pensions, treating it in the sam e way ness to think histori cally, it's too much having brought up a respectable family, as the amount voted for charities. By to hope that anything can be learnt about which made wom en eligible. The Com these m eans, the number of deserving genuine need, and an appropriate response mission suggested that while a go vern aged poor in Victoria receiving a pen to it, by looking at the mistakes of the past. m ent department should be responsible sion was nearly halved. When in 1909 An attempt to halve the numbers getting for the payment of pensions, the existing responsibility for old-age pensions was assistance fr om the state is as likely to ladies' committees might well be u sed transferred to the Commonwealth, about be the response now as it was then. • to determine eligibility. T h e pension 16 per cent of Victorians eligible by age age was 65, and applicants had to have received the pension. Under the Com Kay Rollison has a PhD in history. lived in the colony for ten years. monwealth legislation, that had risen to The advanced liberal m ajority of the 30 per cent by 1910. Commission wanted to aff ord aid to the Old-age pensions were undoubtedly red uce, reuse , rec ycle, destitute or nearly destitute, 'without popular with the aged poor; perhaps they weakening .. . individual initiative or thought of them as a right in return for a invest ethically impairing the Anglo-Saxon characteris life tim e of hard work, low pay and taxes. tics of self-respect and manly independ Labor m embers, wh o felt they repres ence'. They acknowledged the difficulty ented th e class interests of th e poor, of providing fo r old age by individual certainly made this claim. But most of eff ort, but still wanted to ensure that the those who used the rhetoric of rights saw eff ort was m ade, or had at least been the right as belon gin g only to those m ade before old age made it impossible. judged to be the deserving poor, the good So they relied on the notion of mutual citizens who had practised thrift and hard obliga tion inherent in the idea of deserv work, and were genuinely destitute ing and undeserving poor, and retained through no fa ult of their own . Further m any of the features of a charity. T he m ore, the rights argument was totally Commission stopped short of calling the rejected by m any Victorians, who con pension a right, seeing it rather as tinued to see pensions as charity for those a reward. who had fa iled in life's great race. The Howard government's cu rrent Whyb other recycl ingif your savi ngsp ol lute? Why INTHE sus EQUENT political debate the reform of the welfare system excludes conserve energy if your investmentsw aste it? Commission's report was interpreted by aged pensions. But its view of welfare is advanced liberal and labour parliamen fundam entally the sam e as the thinking You needn 't co mpromi se your princi ples to earn a tarians as endorsing pensions as a right on pensions of many Victorians 100 years competiti ve return.lnvest you r savingsw ith Au stralia's of citizenship, however circumscribed, ago. If welfare is a right at all, it is a highly specialist fund manager. and a scheme very like the Commission's circumscribed one. There is little or no recommendations was adopted. But the emphasis on people's right to assistance legislative history of old-age pensions fr om the state as citizens. We fi nd the Save with Australian Ethical Investment over the next ten years shows how easily sam e distinction between the deserving the ideal of pensions as even a limited and the undeserving poor, the deserving phone 1800 021 227 nowfor aprospectu s right could degenerate into pensions as being those who put up with the 'mutu or visit our website www.austethical.com.au charity. Early in the new century drought al obligation' of work tests or communi Appllcatmns f~ mvestlll€nt can onlj he made on the f~m contained mtlie current plOsp!i:lus caused a government financial crisis, and ty service. The undeserving lose their Idated 2110111)] and 1eg1~ffed w1th ASIC Iwn1ch 11 ava1lable fr0111 Ausuallan £1h1cal the first spending to be cut was that on benefits. We see the same fa ith in the VOL UME 11 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 19 THE WORLD:2 MOIRA RAYNER Democracy rules • • • OK? '"'1' The meaning of the London May Day protests . .l. H E TERM 'MoB', short for mobile leave' and to others, 'you may not come vulgus, the excitable crowd, was first in'. There was milling, singing, and coined during England's Glorious Revolu- people peeing in the gutter. After an hour tion of 1688. The London mob was the first or so someone threw a plastic bottle. Half one so designated, and the term sub- an hour later the man in charge of the sequently came to be the political code or Met operation was telling a TV reporter shorthand for vulgar, irrepressible reality. that about 4000 or 5000 people were throw- The London mob, so feared by rulers, We were warned, for weeks, that it ing bottles and missiles at his officers. police and newspaper editors, has roared would be war. Papers ran grainy, closed- By this time an objective observer in the city streets for hundreds of years, circuit TV pictures of the supposed would have seen that the whole of central often on holidays, and often smashing 'organisers' (the '24 missing anarchists') London had been brought to a halt and 'liberating' the property of their fo es. and police warnings to stay away from because of the atmosphere of tension and In 1517 the rioters of 'Evil May Day' what would undoubtedly be a confron- expected violence promoted by police, targeted the property of rich foreign crafts- tation between 6000 police and an army politicians (PM Tony Blair 'condemned the men and merchants, whom they held of international conspirators. violence' that day, before there was any) responsible for their atrocious economic What happened? It rained. It rained a and the press. Yet for hours the trapped conditions. In 2001, the protestors of the lot. Big stores and offices put up plywood crowd sang 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Yel- damp and uninspiring May Day felt that hoardings. The 30 or so self-important low Submarine', and 'If you're happy and Habitat, Barclay's Bank and a small 'anarchists' squatting in a warehouse let you know it, clap your hands!' electrical goods shop in the Tottenham themselves be searched that morning by Yes, there was violence. It cam e hours Court Road were responsible for child police, who were using an obscure and later, as frustrated and tired people tried labour, the destruction of rainforests, global slightly objectionable power based on an to leave and were driven back by police warming, GM crops, traffic, pollution, apprehension of conspiracy to damage on horseback, with batons, truncheons multinational companies, global brand- property. They found an aerosol paint and shields, and even then m ost were ing, Third World debt, and sanctions can, a carpenter's knife and a small retreating in fear of being crushed. Some against Iran. Or perhaps they just needed amount of cannabis in the rucksack of a ratbags did smash windows and thieve, a bathroom and a nice lie down. Dane who thought it was legal here. once they had got away. This May Day's protests were suppos- Nobody showed up for the proposed mass This was not a London mob. This was edly highly planned. This would not be feeding of the doomed pigeons of Trafal- a police exercise: promoted, planned and unusual in London's history, if it were gar Square. Cyclists blocked Charing executed with Singaporean efficiency. For true. By the late 18th century the London Cross momentarily to highlight safety the people, May Day 2001 was the Day mob had become less spontaneous and and pollution concerns. There was street That Nothing Much Happened. It more strategic. John Wilkes' campaigns theatre at Euston, free vegie burgers at was not a great day for democracy. for wider parliamentary representation, King's Cross, and at lunchtime unionists civil liberties (for bourgeois Englishmen) marched with drums behind the red flag I T WASN'T REALLY a great week for demo and the freedom of the press during the through the Angel chanting, 'The people, cracy. That week the government 1760s and 1770s, for example, were sup- united, will never be defeated.' announced the appointment of 15 new ported by demonstrations where windows Meanwhile, back in the city ... after a 'life peers' to the House of Lords. These go t smashed and wealthy Londoners' gathering at Her Majesty's Theatre organ- appointments, by an independent Com houses were attacked. So it continued ised by the Socialist Workers' party, or- mission rather than the more u sual through the n ext couple of centuries, ganisers of the crowd of about 2000 told patronage of the Prime Minister, were mostly in targeted campaigns-Corn the amiable yellow-jacketed police escort supposed to be the 'people's peers' and to Laws, suffragists, race, Campaign for that they might just drift up towards mark the high point of Blair's commit Nuclear Disarmament and anti-Vietnam Oxford Street, which they did, with no ment to political reform, after he marches. May Day, though, has become objection, at about 3pm . Then, everything abolished hereditary peers' right to sit in diffuse, an occasion for discontent about changed. New police, grim-faced, dark- the House in 1999. Based on the DEMOS the quality of our lives. clothed riot police, silently encircled and thinktank proposal, derived from ancient This year's May Day demonstration cut them off, saying politely but firmly, Athens, whereby citizens were chosen at was a damp squib. to those already there, 'you may not random to rule the city-state, these new 20 EUREKA STREET • )UN E 2001 life peers were not to be drawn from narrow elites but from the ranks of ordinary people: one need only apply. Of course, even in Athens only some citizens were eligible: no slaves, aliens or women, for example, could take part in the ballot. And so it was in London. More than 3000 people did send in their CVs, the vast majority from London. The 'people's peers' comprise seven knights, Science burning Bush four charity workers, a lord's wife and three professors. Most come from Lon don or the south-east; the majority have A cuRIOUs TWIST, science is rapidly becoming the conscience, the Thomas already got awards from Her Gracious IN a Majesty, 11 are already in Who's Who, Becket, of the US Bush administration. It's an odd reversal of roles. It is more just four of them are women, and there's usual for science, with its wealth of ideas, to be pushing against legislative not one nurse, pensioner, volunteer barriers erected by politicians. But in the past few months, we have seen in worker or plumber, and not one working George W. Bush a politician who refuses to be constrained by science. class git among them . The new Establish Science and politics are, of course, two completely different worlds and ment has engaged in an act of homosocial clearly, different standards of certainty are used in science and in politics. reproduction. N owhere is this illustrated better than in the case of George W. versus the It is true that it is now a liberal estab climate-change scientists. lishment. But if I were a native Londoner, Bush, you will remember, has withdrawn American support for the Kyoto I would take to the streets over the power agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions to slow the rate of global warm ful words of Lord Stevenson, head of the ing. He argued that scientists themselves were still disputing whether global selection committee, on class, m erit and warming was real. Now that is an interesting contention, given that support reward in the Workers' Paradise: among climate scientists for the idea that human activity is causing global You haven't got your hairdresser in this warming runs at well over 90 per cent-according to Robert Watson, the co list, but if you go back to our criteria, one chair of the world's chief scientifi c body on global warming, the Intergovern of them is that the human being will be m ental Panel on Climate Change. comfortable operating in the House of Worse, American scientists are busy presenting the other side of the coin Lords. Before we were to nominate some to Bush in a government report entitled Climate Change Impact on the United one from that kind of background with an States. In it, he will learn that doing nothing about global warming m ay well outstanding achi evem ent in his or her have repercussions close to home. These include less snow in the Rockies, which chosen way of life, we would have to be will reduce the water supply to desert cities (including Los Angeles); m ore very, very confident that they would feel hurricanes in Florida; and rising sea levels and hotter temperatures along the comfortable standing up in debates and heavily populated eastern seaboard. talking and cutting it. I don't rule out the Then there is the Bush administration's desire to develop its anti-missile possibility that someone of that kind will shield. While the government is arguing the virtues of such a system, very little be appointed, but it would be a great of substance has been said about how it will work. Perhaps that is because m ost responsibility on our part appointing them . scientists don 't believe it's possible. So far, only one of three tests of a missile We would have to do it very carefully. based system has worked, and that test was widely believed in the science world Lord Stevenson might learn som e to be a fluke or a fraud. And an Israeli expert has recently stated that an air thing from the proceedings of our Aus borne laser-based system would be unworkable because the beam would be tralian Constitutional Convention, in irretrievably scattered and weakened by aerosols in the atmosphere by the time 1998. That unruly mob learned very it reached its target. (' Who will rid me of these turbulent scientists?') quickly how politics, and the wishes of Those pesky researchers-government biologists at that-are even out there ordinary people to rule themselves, are in the wilderness denigrating the President's plan to have Congress approve oil done, and done over, in parliaments. drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. In direct contradic This fear and disrespect of the com tion to Exxon, a recent report from the US Fish and Wildlife Service says that mon sense of the common man and wom most seabird populations show no signs of recovery more than a decade after an shows that the ' mother of all the Exxon Valdez oil spill in southern Alaska. Colleagues from the sam e agency parliaments' has become an old madam, further north are predicting disaster for caribou herds-already in poor shape demanding 'respect' which she no longer if the drilling is allowed to go ahead. The area earmarked for activity happens to deserves. • be right in the middle of the caribou calving grounds. Science, it appears, has becom e the spectre at the Bush dance. • Moira Rayner is Director of the London Children's Rights Commissioner's Office. Tim Thwaites is a freelance science writer. VOLUME 11 NUMBER 5 EUREKA STREET 2 1 MEMOIR PETER PIERCE Recalling McAuley Recent biographies of james McAuley, including Michael Ackland's Damaged Men, fail to explain why the man has proved so compelling. I N FEBRUARY of his last year, Jim McAuley took m e The title was 'ExpLicit'. It was intended, with a grave to lunch in Hobart, to Mure's Fish House in Battery theatricality, to be his last poetic testam ent. Ron Had- Point. He paid. We'd just finished a 200-minute drick read 'Explicit' on the three-hour ABC program English staff meeting at the University of Tasmania. that went to air some Sunday nights after Jim's death. Part of it was given to ascertaining the 'correct' plural Friends like Vin Buckley fondly reminisced. Several of rhinoceros. (There are three or four options as it of McAuley's hymns were performed. Meanwhile, happens. Ionesco was on the syllabus.) N eedless to having begun 'Explicit' darkly jes ting: 'Fully tested say, Jim had not been in the chair. At lunch-at least I've been found/Fit to join the underground', he was as long as the staff m eeting- he told me that he had perhaps discovering what substance there was in his secondary cancers in the liver, and would not survive conclusion; how long would be that 'dark and cold' beyond the end of the year. Medical fri ends were winter, before springtime, when 'the wattle turns to deeply engaged. There would be treatments in Sydney, gold'. but only by way of postponement. He was direct, As school kids, eager to get to university, angry, uncomplaining. When he died, on 15 October numbers of us knew of McAuley; marvelled that a 1976, I was astonished to find that one senior real poet would settle in Tasmania; would teach us. colleague (who had been on leave) had not known how There was more than one, of course. Gwen Harwood ill Jim was. For Jim kept his life in compartments. It had given a talk to our English class at Hobart was said of him that he had cronies, rather than friends. Matriculation College when this smart-arse recalled I had come back from Oxford to tutor at the Uni- the hoax of hers on the Bulletin, the acrostic sonnets versity of Tasmania, where Jim had been one of my from Heloise to Abelard and back which so aggrieved teachers from 1968 t o 1973. At Mure's h e was the editor, Donald Horne (they spelled out: so LONG welcoming me back, although not in the expectation BULLETIN FU CKALL ED ITORS) . Only a very few years later, that I would, or should, stay long. I didn't. Not many in 1969, McAuley and Harwood read together at an years before-in 1970- he had been diagnosed with undergraduate literary society m eeting in Hobart. bowel cancer. This cam e as a shock to his daughter (This was an occasion which Jim regularly supported, who, I recollect, had been about to go to the same reading another time with his old mate Alec Hope. ) cancelled lecture (to have been given by her father) as This time he read from Surprises of the Sun- I was. After Jim had recovered from surgery, a Malay- Romantic, self-questing poems that should forever sian mate, tutor and postgraduate student in the have disturbed characterisations of his English department, Salleh ben Joned, had gone out verse that politics largely dictated. with m e to Calvary Hospital to see Jim. (Salleh, a poet, 1 columnist, academic, would later return to Malaysia, MICHAEL ACKLAN D's parallel lives of McAuley and fall foul of the humourless Mahathir regime, and end Harold Stewart, Damaged Men, he quoted acquaint- up in Scandinavia.) For relaxation, Jim was reading ances of Jim who disturbingly asked whether the Ern Anthony Powell, the 12 volumes of A Dance to the Malley poems were all for which he would be remem- Music of Time. It was an indulgence not till then bered. They weren't. Although the effects of this permitted, but a real refreshment for him. It wasn't marvellously deft imposture continued to haunt its then- to be vigilant about remembrance-that he victims, and two generation s of their defenders, famously said, 'better a semi-colon than a full stop'. I scarcely heard Jim mention the hoax. My impres- In the early spring of 1976, while Jim was still sion was that it had long ceased to matter to him. coming to work, I was chatting in his office (never That it has mattered, for so long, at such length, to ask, 'How are you I'). On his desk, in his crabbed but many others bespeaks a culture thinner than it thinks beautiful penmanship, was a poem on a single, itself to be. It also indicates how the indictment of expensive sheet of paper. When he saw me reading it Jim's conservative politics was wilfully imported into upside clown, he put the poem away in the top drawer. judgments of his poetry- first he assaults m odernism, 22 EUREKA STREET • )UNE 2001 then the ALP; backs 'meaning and craftsmanship' in Graem e Hetherington was a prime source of gossip. poetry and the DLP. Hetherington's intrusions into the McAuley nar And what of his politics? His fights with the rative, continue to be broadcast in prose and verse. Sydney Catholic hierarchy were long in the past. His Those who were in Hobart in the 19 70s might wonder relations with Santamaria, and the extent of their at the extent and importance of the acquaintance that influence on one another, were a matter of persistent Hetherington claimed with McAuley. And they might rumour. Like most others, I was outside all that. I've ask if any local poets prompted McAuley to the no idea whether McAuley had secret discussions or Swiftian conceit of Poets' Anonymous, whereby the m eetings with John Kerr in the months before the Dis government would pay bad poets not to write and missal. But I do remember the answer to a question encourage them to discuss their sad propensities with innocently put to him in the pub nearest the Oxford one another. (In qualification, M cAuley was well railway station, back in 1974. Jim was having lunch capable of being supportive and disparaging by turns.) there with m e and one of the sons of Bob Santamaria. Hetherington's evidence was gleefully received and Why has his I asked him if he knew anything of the recently then dissembled by Ackland and Pybus. Was McAuley appointed Governor-General. Indeed he did. Kerr had an adulterer, as each hints? Or should we maybe take turn come been the godfa ther of one of his children. Later he his word? In a long afternoon that I spent at his house and Kerr had had a falling-out (over the DLP, as in N ew Town, where modern marriage was the main round again~ Ackland's book explores). N ow they seem ed to be in part of the conversation, Jim said that his own was touch again. McAuley, who loathed Whitlam, said 'without spot or stain'. N aively or not, I think that What void in som ething like this: 'Kerr is very ambitious and very that ought to be part of the record as well. vain. He will not be a passive Governor-General and The intent to dem ean McAuley is evident in the the present Whitlam is stupid if he thinks so. He will seek as far lack of precise sources that Ackland and Pybus give as he can to use the influence of his office.' As it would for anecdotes intended to damage him. At times culture is he being summoned up to fill~ What current anxieties is he being prove before the end of the fo llowing year: true Ackland quotes Pybus as a source without her having conscripted to prophecy. given primary attribution. Did McAuley, while in Ackland does a much more m easured job of N ew Guinea towards the end of World War II, deter addr ess~ The assessing McAuley than his predecessor Cassandra mine to kill an obliging Japanese soldier to see what Pybus in The Devil and [ames McAuley (1999). Yet it felt like? Did he succeed? I have heard the story recent studies neither of them knew him, and it shows, in various, from a contemporary who knew McAuley, but from but telling ways. N o-one now knows Keats or the what place, what desire, or perhaps what fa ntasy did of McAuley do Brontes either, or Byron, sadly, but this does not the tale truly emerge? It's one best interred. Put it in usually allow them vulgarly to presume acquaintance the urn with the exorcism yarns that have distracted not confront as do Pybus and Ackland. The former announced that Ackland (it's miraculous what malaria bouts she was glad to have got him in the grave at last; the can be mistaken for) . the questions latter warns McAuley's children that they m ay not recognise the portrait of their fa ther that he is about A KEY TROUBLE with books so unsatisfactory in that, to paint. One trusts not. Pybus runs the improbable their treatment of McAuley as Damaged Men and The thesis that McAuley was a repressed homosexual. Devil is that they queer the pitch for the next bio insidiously, Moreover, terrified of dem onic possession, that he grapher. No-o ne wants m ore of the well-meaning consequently demonised communism. As Peter Conrad hagiography of Peter Coleman's The Heart of [am es they raise. wrote of the first charge, in his withering dem olition McAuley ( 1980). (And by the way, I was in Peter of Pybus' book in Australian Literary Studies last year, Conrad's room s in Christ Church when Jim rang 'I think I would have known.' About altogether more Coleman about the sale of Quadrant. As long as the common matters- especially adultery- both Pybus magazine kept going, he didn't care who owned it. and Ackland are evasive, notwithstanding that, for This is m entioned by the bit player because so m any each of them, the expatriate, som etime academic personal sources seem to have gone unconsulted, or V OLUME 11 N UMB ER 5 • EU REKA STREET 23 unused, by Pybus and Ackland.) But where is the confront the questions that, insidiously, they raise. positive account of a man so richly gifted, so generous To turn back to the actual career: McAuley's profes of his time and talents? sional progress was curiously stuttering. Years of it Not that I knew a tenth of it, but consider were spent at the Australian Inst itute of Pacifi c McAuley's engagem ent with family, church, col Administration in Sydney, before he accepted a leagues, friends and sparring partners, with poU tics, Readership in Poetry at the University of Tasmania. poetry, criticism, polemic. And never forget, although Following the sudden death of Murray Todd, McAuley t his seem s hard for recent biographers to take succeeded to the Chair of English. His poetic reputa seriously, his great gifts as a teacher. Acutely alive to tion was slow to build as well. Max Harris had books the craft of poetry, he made many of us love to learn of verse published before McAuley or Stewart. T he of the technical processes of its creation. His minor Quiros epic answered to an inner, spiritual need of masterpiece is A Primer of English Versi fica tion McAuley's that was very effectively and widely com ( 1966). Many studen ts of his who became teachers of municated. Those who are happy to build myths of English are forever in his debt. Intensely prejudiced the poet might think of Surprises of the Sun as about his fa vourites (Spen ser, Dryden, TraklL he liberating the Romantic from the doctrinaire, neo impelled us to question his damning of Shelley, his Augustan admirer of Pope and Dryden . Wrong: few equivocations over Blake. Reading with relish N orth Aus tralian poets have been m ore consistently umberland's words, 'Let order die!' in Henry IV Part Romantic in their practice (if not their criticism) than As school kids, eager to get to II, McAuley moved fro m intense immersion in that McAuley. He witnessed the benign effects of Nature extrem e feeling to reproof of it, but not before afford (a nd in consequence taxed the Governor of Tasmania, university, ing a glimpse of what long ago, as an undergraduate who read 'In the Huon Valley' at McAuley's funeral at Sydney University, had attracted him to anarchism . service). Often in his poem s he positioned himself at numbers of McAuley said of Peter Conrad, as he could justl y the edge of the fram e, looking in at the natural world, have said of himself, that he could charm the birds poised in grateful wonder, paring down h is words to us knew of fro m the trees. In him were compounded rage and simple, declarative utteran ces. And at times he grace, civility and vengefulness. As som eon e has distilled w hat he hoped might be wisdom : 'It isn't true McAuley; correctly info rmed Ackland, he was a dem ocrat in that one never/Profits, never learns.' dealings with his colleagues and always 'available' Expressing the doubt that Christ could ever 'walk m arvelled that (before this becam e a dreary bureaucratic duty) to in a poem ' in 'our century', McAuley had already writ students to talk about their work. H e played politics ten such thrilling poem s as 'Jesus' in refutation of a real poet on man y stages: with Catholic bishops, in the forma himself. Like Keats, he believed in the salving an ti tion of the DLP, over the Orr case at the University thesis, 'the joys that lie/Closest to despair'. This was would settle of Tasm ania, in public forums to debate the war in to speak of trials of faith and of private demonsi to Vietnam . The last he never squibbed. He was also for face them , admit to them , but hardly to yield to in Ta smania; years involved, for a tim e as presiden t, in the English infernal possession . Neither the poet nor the public Teachers' Associati on of Australia. A sense of civic m an have been well served in any book about would du ty compelled McAuley, whatever his critics might McAuley. Instead, the las t two have invented a private have thought of it. School, parish and lecture theatre self, unverifiable and unrecognisable to any but them teach us. all engaged him fully. All stages came alike to himi selves, a man torm en ted, hypocritical, con temptible. but their opportunities were taken with respect. For all that can be said against Jim McAuley, what a McAuley the consummate actor has escaped the person he was to bring alive one's time spent with imaginations of Pybus and Ackland as well. him. Others can actually say that from deeper, more Why has his turn come round again? What void complex and intimate acquaintance than mine. • in the present culture is he being summoned up to fill? What current anxieties is he being conscripted Peter Pierce is Chair of Australian Literature and Head to address? The recent studies of McAuley do not of the School of Humanities, Jam es Cook University. 24 EUREKA STR EET • jUN E 2001 REVIEW ESSAY MARK ARMSTRONG Upping the Aunty Death Struggle, Quentin Dempster, Allen & Unwin, 2000. ISBN l 8650 8037 3, RRP $29.95 I s THE ABC 'lazy, presumptuous with taxpayers' Alston, Donald McDonald and Brian Johns. Through money ... flabby, and incoherent' as Paul Ham said in the eyes of a key player we gain an up-close and March in the Sydney Morning Herald? Is it inefficient personal view ... ' and so on. The problem is that there and in need of reform, as Richard Alston, the Minister is almost no evidence of the political animals doing for Communications and the Arts, has been saying anything dangerous. This sensational treatment for five years? overlooks the fact that Canberra's way of strangling The motive for allegations is easy enough to find. an organisation is much more effective, and indirect: Opinion surveys consistently show that the ABC is via bureaucratic channels, and through 101 different Australia's most respected organisation. It is publicly impacts on finance and resources. funded, but independent of the government. This What about the alleged 'boardroom power-plays'? attracts the hostility of Treasury, Finance, and much Whatever problems Donald McDonald may have as of the Canberra establishment. More dangerous still, current chair of the ABC, or Jonathan Shier as it provides a platform for all viewpoints, including managing director, there is no current suggestion of many which are unwelcome to governments and 'boardroom power-plays'. And Death Struggle does not ve ted interests. No wonder it is attacked as a faction- tell us about the power-plays in the period it covers, riven bureaucracy. But where is the factual material from 1992 to 2000. There were a few power-plays, but for the attacks? It will not be found in the public record nobody was stupid enough to try them at a board of over ten reviews plus inquiries every year, from a meeting. The back cover also promises 'a chilling host of parliamentary, public service and audit bodies. account' by Dempster as an investigative journalist. The ABC rates very well in those reviews. The keyword of the 350-page book seems to be Unfortunately, some ABC insiders are among the 'scandal'. Everything opposed by the Community and source of the rumours and damaging 'factual' material. Public Sector Union (CPSU) seems to have become a Since the ABC employs the nation's largest number 'scandal'. Yes, the book does rehash some mistakes of journalists, it should not be surprising that some in management and strategy, but it takes spend their time exposing the alleged wickedness of s imagination to turn them into scandals. their own organisation. In some parts of the ABC, a communication problem with the boss becomes a OMEBODY NEEDS TO explain that this book is public scandal demanding a Royal Commission. That misleading. It misrepresents the dedication of is just a fact of life, a part of the free, journalistic culture, thousands of ABC people who delivered an excellent and a cross which most ABC people, from junior staff service throughout the 1990s. It is potentially dam- to division heads, carry as the price of free speech. aging to public broadcasting, because a book by a Quentin Dempster is a crusading ABC journalist former staff-elected director looks more authoritative famous for his book about whistleblowers and his than a tabloid newspaper article. People who care exposure of corruption in the Bjelke-Petersen govern- about the ABC may be persuaded to believe this m ent in Queensland. His new book, Death Struggle, account, and enemies of public broadcasting may attempts to expose the wickedness of ABC leadership. claim it proves their case. The cover promises an expose of the way 'political I was chair of the board for five of the years the malice and boardroom power-plays are killing the book covers. I feel an obligation, even at the risk of ABC'. Well, there is some political malice from drawing attention to the book, to say in print, and for Canberra. It starts with politicians who have been the record, that this catalogue of alleged scandals, wounded by news and current affairs programs. But blunders and politics bears no resemblance to what the tabloid approach of this book misses the point. was happening at the ABC, or what the main issues Death Struggle claims to expose misdeeds by were. 'political animals at their most dangerous-from Bob In the 1990s, the ABC invigorated Australian Hawke and Paul Keating to John Howard, Richard media as never before. Australian drama reached VOLUME 11 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 25 record levels. The ABC at last threw off the colonial reports by third parties. Hill could not have managed cringe, symbolised by the announcers' imitation to misbehave for two years everywhere but in Demp So uthern English accents, to become a real power ster's presence. house of local culture. Triple J radio went nationwide, If ever there was an MD who met Dempster's to off er real engagement to younger people. News and (a nd the Union's) ideal specifications, it was Brian current affairs program s increased, and a t las t Johns. When we looked for a new MD in 1994, we abandoned the 'm e too' agenda to cover our own Asia wanted som ebody to lead a creative renewal at the Pacific region. Books and COs poured out; there was ABC, and to improve relations with staff. Johns expansion in rural and regional radio ou tlets. T he lavished time on the CPSU leadership, and even defi ed orchestras were rejuvenated. Women moved up the government industrial relations policy to support a management chain; in the 1990s, the ABC led the deal with unions about how redundancies would be whole TV sector in getting women on screen, handled. How does Death Stnzggle portray him? Johns especially in news and current affa irs. The ABC appears as an incoherent, politicall y naive operator underpinned the expansion of Aboriginal broad who was secretive in dealings with staff. For the casting, and took on hundreds of Aboriginal trainees record, that is not Brian Johns. all this in a period of stea dily reducing staff numbers. Dozens of others, at levels beneath MD, arc A stream of broadcasters came from around the exposed as incompetent or worse. In fac t, wickedness world to find out how the ABC was managing such a seems to be a virus that strikes anyone within six renaissance, and how they could copy it. Teams of months of taking on an ABC management role. T hat public service managers were sent to the ABC to learn is very misleading. Nobody is perfect, but the ABC fro m its financial m anagem ent and change manage m ent success. Other frequent visitors were the BBC chairman and senior executives . They studied our program budgeting and resource allocation in detail, and their findings formed a major input to the eventual BBC 'producer choice' program resourcing system . Then Richard Alston as Minister and other politicians ca lled for the ABC to reform itself by adopting the BBC system . This wa the system inspired by the ABC itself! Anyone who doubts this record can check the lists of awards in the annual reports from 1990 onwards. There are lists of local and international program awards, awards for financial reporting and for music. Consider the improved work environments built at Ultimo in Sydney, Southbank in Melbourne and elsewh ere. Count the number of new regional managers with whom I worked were the best I have studios built in places that had limited service encountered in the public or private sector. This is before. Study the press re ports of literally not just a personal opinion. It is based on various hundreds of thousands coming to ABC open dealings with th e ABC from outside, and the days in the 1990s. independent opinions of people in other sectors who dealt with the ABC. D EATH STJWGGLE IS A big book, replete with detail, A clue to the book's view of managem ent wicked which cannot be rebutted in a short pace. But one ness lies in its long, detailed account of the campaign example may illustrate the difference between its to stop ABC TV at Gore Hill in Sydney being alleged scandals and the real ABC: the portrayal of co-located with radio at Ultimo. Suppose, for the sake the two Managing Directors of the '90s, David Hill of argument, that Brian Johns and the McDonald board and Brian Johns. Both worked with me. Hill is were wrong, that it would have been better to renovate portrayed as probably the worst of many management Gore Hill and not to co-locate. Was that mistake a ogres and fo ols in the book: dictatorial, impetuous, scandal, a crime, a conspiracy/ At worst, it remains a devious, hell-bent on commercialisa tion, and a hater mistake, a sub-optimal use of resources. The book of ABC staff and culture. This is a fa lse image, unfair provides abundant detail to show bad faith, secrecy to Hill. Hill had his faults, like any chief executive. and gross incompetence. Yet even from its own I was not always his favourite person, but did that account, it seems that there was a high level of staff really matter so long as he followed instructions and management consultation, with some breakdown of delivered the good broadcasting results of the early communication. Is this a reason for damning Johns '90s? Dempster was present, as staff-elected director, and refusing to deal with him? The fa ct is that nobody for Hill's last two years, so where are the direct can manage even a corner shop without making accounts of his bad behaviourl Most come from mistakes. 26 EU REKA STREET • j UNE 2001 If every person who ever made a mistake were commercial salary. The vacuum left by ABC depar sacked, we would all be unemployed. And the first tures is often filled by people who come from the sales people to go would be the leaders, the reformers and oriented culture of commercial broadcasting. Their the creative people, because reform carries inherently modus operandi and training can be a threat to what more risks than doing nothing. That would be makes the ABC unique: independent, non-commercial disastrous for the ABC. This leads to another problem broadcasting. with the Death Struggle view of the ABC: dozens of Death Struggle does two further things which the leaders or managers in the book are revealed to be contradict each other: it exults in the removal of flawed and inadequate. The main exceptions are the wicked ABC managers and it opposes commerciali heroes such as whistleblower John Millard, Gore Hill sation. The best way to prevent commercialisation is anti-eo-location campaigner David Salter, and the to have a culture which nurtures leaders. The best CPSU throughout. For the rest of the managers who way to commercialise the ABC and change its values receive coverage, there appears only one solution: is to denounce the ABC leadership, and replace it with dismissal. people from commercial media. Management instability is one of the ABC's top I could not recommend Death Struggle to anyone two problems. The other is reduced funding. On a who wanted to know what the ABC is really like, or rough count, the team reporting direct to the MD has what it was like during the five years I was chair of had a 100 per cent turnover twice in five years: once, its board. It is a strange, factional account that spends gradually, after Brian Johns replaced the David Hill 350 pages trying to uncover scandals which do not team; and once, more quickly, when Jonathan Shier exist. In my experience, Quentin Dempster is a noble, Hostile forces in Canberra are always claiming, for their own reasons, that ABC management needs to be flushed out. The opposite is the case . The ABC could perform even better if it retained skills and planned for the long term . The lean, mean private sector organisations hold on to their leadership. replaced the Johns team. That sort of turnover is caring human being; I originally agreed to help him expensive because of the cost of terminating contracts. write the book, believing that he wanted to tell an It is vastly more expensive in loss of corporate interesting, colourful story showing how ABC people memory and leadership confusion. struggled against so many pressures to deliver a Thus far I have consciously avoided rebutting relevant, stimulating, authentically Australian Death Struggle's view of myself as a nice guy but service. I moved away as he kept saying that the pub ineffective as chair, but I do need to mention one lishers, Allen & Unwin, only wanted a 'blow by blow' point: I stopped or restrained numerous dismissals, account of what happened in the boardroom. Well, and wish I had stopped even more. Hostile forces in boardrooms aren't simply 'blow by blow' places. Canberra are always claiming, for their own reasons, People work on planning, finance, strategy, monitor that ABC management needs to be flushed out. The ing and accountability. They don't punch each other, opposite is the case. The ABC could perform even or scream. You do the inevitable dirty work better if it retained skills and planned for the long somewhere else, and unfortunately you can't disclose term. The lean, mean private sector organisations hold it to a staff-elected director who takes pride in being on to their leadership. The key executives at the Nine a whistleblower. and Ten commercial TV networks have been in the People who care for the ABC, which means most same roles for around a decade. Seven had big changes Australians, should know that this account is around the year 2000, but has otherwise been stable. misleading. The ABC is a vastly better organisation The ABC has special problems with wholesale than Death Struggle suggests. • management turnover, because there is no obvious pool of experienced public broadcasting leaders. The Mark Armstrong is Director of Network Insight, a easiest choice is to recruit from the commercial Sydney-based communications research unit, which is sector-if people are prepared to work for half the part of RMIT, and a former chair of the board of the ABC. VOLUME 11 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 27 THE REGIO N Operation Fiji Peter Davis holds the camera while surgeons wield the ?Calpels . ANN ETTE BALDWIN is on location. All around Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA) with her, people are unpacking expensive-looking equip support from the Australian government through the ment, putting on costumes and rehearsing routines Pacific Islands Project. as they prepare the theatre. Behind the scenes there Today's location is the Colonial War Memorial arc a million-and-one tasks demanding attention. Hospital in Suva, Fiji. Other teams, under Baldwin's Baldwin is in control. She knows where every direction, have produced the same two-week perform thing is, from a single battery to the machine costing ance in Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua hundreds of thousands. She helps unravel pipes, run New Guinea. This time she journeys ahead of the team to prepare the way for the 1700kg of equipment-hun dreds of boxes and crates, all labelled, each one forming part of the jigsaw that will fix a faulty heart. The team arrives in Suva late on Saturday night. Opera tions begin on Monday so they spend Sunday unpacking and plugging in. Everyone is gowned up in hospital-theatre green. They shuffle across the hospital floor like a small army of green ants preparing a ritual. For some in the team it's their first time. Others are veterans of many visits. Bald win has made ten visits with a cardiac team to Fiji. She knows the ropes. The team members, she tells me, are 'on holidays'. Not on Australian beaches, relaxing with families or blabbing out in a Pacific cables and plug in computers. And she knows exactly island resort. Instead they choose to do what they know where every one of her 42 crew m embers must be and well and what they do back home. They part-pay their at what time. airfare and accommodation. 'Satisfaction', 'experi Opposit e page: Like all good directors, Baldwin knows the ence' and 'the feeling of making a difference' are the Sa lly Wharton (leit) and importance of teamwork-except all this activity has common answers in response to the question of why. Annette Ba ldwin, members nothing to do with staging plays or making movies. Beyond the quiet certainty of the hospital walls, of the voluntary Australian But it is very much to do with heartthrobs. somewhere out there in the suburbs and shanty towns ca rdi ac tea m, prepare the As the head of the Medical Extension Program at of Suva, 70 people who have made the shortlist for operating th ea tre at th e Colonial W ar Memorial the Sydney Adventist Hospital, Baldwin is responsible the heart operation are waiting to find out whether Hospital, Suva. for co-ordination of the voluntary cardiac team, a they will be selected. Only half of them will make i\bove: The C 28 EUREKA STREET • j UNE 2001 Not all of the team is here. Some are resting in the hotel. They will make up the night shift. Twenty four-hour surveillance is essential after an operation. I gown up and am directed into the theatre to witness the first operation. On the table is a 3D-som e thing woman. Dr Gale and his team have opened her up and they're probing her chest cavity. Beyond the humming and sighing of the machines there's a strange silence. Everyone is in his or her place. Everyone knows what to do. It's the sm oke and the smell of burning tissue that I find hard to take. It comes from the sutures. They do it to stop bleeding. I'm conscious of the noise my cam era makes. The operation takes three hours. Later that day I visit the recovery ward. The woman I saw with her chest open, her heart exposed and her flesh smoulder ing, is plugged into m any machines. She's surrounded by intensive care volunteers. But she's conscious and able to laugh at a joke from one of the nurses. 'In two weeks she'll be out of here and living a perfectly normal and healthy life,' Annette Baldwin tells me. Over the following two weeks, the cardiac team operated on 30 patients. Since the program began in 1985, over 1000 volunteers have given the chance of longer life to nearly 300 patients. • Peter Davis is a Melbourne-based writer and photo grapher, and lecturer in writing at Deakin University. It's Sunday afternoon and in a room adjacent to where the equipment is being assembled, Australian "It is very hard for many to cross that line and accept cardiologist Dr Allan Gale sits in conference with that same-sex love may, for some men, include Dr Shiva Roy from Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital, erotic ex pre. sian of their love for one another." and locally based doctors, Dr Bekama and Dr Nasaroa. Jeremy Marks, head of a UK organisation set up They are watching the small screen on a big machine to "heal" homosexuals which is now changing called a cardio-ultrasonographer. The machine costs its policv $250,000 and it has been donated to the hospital by the manufacturer, Agilent Technologies. Tomorrow morning this machine will be officially handed over "Dr George Pel I. .. is a high profile and outspoken in a breakfast ceremony attended by Fiji's interim cleric whom some credit as hav ing assumed unto prime minister and a bevy of politicians. But today himself the role of spokesman for the Church in there is no ceremony, just a series of moving pulsat Melbourne. Sydney Anglicans will want so meone ing images- these are the beating hearts of those who who is at least the measu re of PelI in terms of lie in waiting. advancing a Christian perspective.'' Allan Gale points to the screen to identify the Chris McGillion, Charles Sturt Universitv. on irregularities in each heart. He's the one who decides Sydn ey's Hew Archbishops who makes the final list. 'We can't fix everybody,' he says. 'We have to choose those who have the best chance of leading a normal life without the sorts of The Melbourne Anglican drugs that would be hard to obtain in this country.' 1998 winner of the Gutenberg Award for Excellence By the end of the day an operation sched.ule in Reli giou s Communication for the next two weeks has been finalised. Mention this ad for a free sample copy of TMA I ARRIVE BACK AT THE HOSPITAL at lunchtime on Phone: (03) 9653 4221 Monday. A large table in a waiting room near the or email: [email protected] theatre is piled high with fruits, meats and cakes. This -- Tl1e ------is sustenance for the cardiac team. It's brought to the hospital by local women who volunteer their skills. All of them know someone who needs an operation. VOLUME 11 N UMBER 5 • EURE KA STREET 29 BOOKS:l j AMES G RI FF I N Ventures in Paradise The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedi a, Brij V. La I and Kate Fortune (eds), Unive rsity of Hawaii, Honolulu, 2000. JSB 0 824R 2265 X (incl udes CD-ROM ). I T" '"' TO "' f'Octiou' in Vila. That ardent critic or too portentous about the of Australia, Prime Minis micro-states and clepencl ter Fr Walter Lini, was encics of the Pacific Ocean. obliged to seek Australian Someone recently, on being and New Zealand aid to told of an all eged sex restore order. Then in 1990 scandal eli vi cling the com there wa s another alarm, munity of Pitcairn Island, w h en Soviet repres thanked the Lord that the entation opened in Port Cold War was over. It was Moresby. The embassy a relief to know there could closed in 1992 after a peri od be no suggestion of any but of ineffectuality a nd lega l inte rv en tion from incomprehension. Moscow outside. However, in the had to economise and had not impossible event that grown other preoccupa all 44 Bounty descendants tions. It was too late to (down from 47 in the 1996 think it might dabble in census) will decamp, per Bougain ville's torm ent. haps to N orfolk Island Continued dependency in again, as in 1856, will the territory revert to But our State Department American was the region on Australia is unavoidable. being a veritable terra nullius? Will the UN not totally astray about the portents. The Today the perceived problems arc dif take it off its dccolonisa tion agenda? Would USSR soon bega n to essay fi shing agree ferent. Outside powers pose no obvious Britain defend it like the Falklands in 1982? ments with Kiribati and Vanuatu and the territorial or id eological threat, although But, to be truly serious, we should fervent anti-nco-colonialists in Vila began maritime zones remain unprotected. The remember that there was a scare among seeking diplomatic relations with Cuba and French have ceased nuclea r testing and even some cognoscenti following the accession Libya and talking clown Indonesia's claim seem to have appeased Kanak unrest in to power of the New Jewel Movement in to West Papua. (I cannot remember what New Caledonia. Our 'strategic perim eter', Caribbean Grenada in 1983-84, which the impudent attitude they had towards East however, has become an 'arc of instability'. US felt it had to suppress. One evening in Timor: perhaps liberation there too.) Starting beyond the cusp of the arc, we face Melbourne I was hustled by a conspirato Vanuatu joined thc Non-AlignedMovement the previously unthinkabl e possibility of rial friend into a bugger-mugger of con (NAM) and was so adamant on nuclear the dis sol uti on of the Indonesian state while cerned Australians who were being issues it held back fr om the Trea ty of Ea s t Timor will rem ain territorially addressed by a US State Department chap Raratonga, set up a provisional independ vulnerable from without and unstable about the vulnerability of similar micro ent Kanak government in Vil a and in late within. The indigenous population of Irian states in the Pacific_ Theoretically, you 1987 expelled the French ambassador and Jay a (West Papua) will not accept continued could have a coup d'etat, say, in Nauru or reduced its mi ion from 30 to two. There Indonesian rule even with concessions to Niue almost instanter, our visitor thought. was concern in Canberra, some worry in autonomy. Its giga ntic Freeport mine, with That was alm ost the extent of his know Washington. Strategic denial was the aim out restraints, continues to sludge both its ledge of the region. I was reminded of our of the game. terrain and its politics. What is surprising is esteemed Vanclemonian con viet, Jorge n There were, however, countervailing that there has not yet been a more evident Jorgenson (1780-1841), an adventurous factors. Vanuatu was discomfited when carriage of arms to the OPM (Organisasi Dane (by birth) who fro m an English ship in France reduced aid for the country's Papua Merdel 30 EUR EKA STREET • jUNE 2001 even kleptocracy; the recent mutiny of the urgency of a less patronising and more ho of factual reference relating to the physical army stems more from gross neglect than listic response to Oceania. It is to be hoped environments of the Pacific Islands, their insubordination. While there is progress in he can persuade som e of his m ore capable peoples and diasporas, histories, social negotiating devolution in Bougainville, the departmental officers to point their careers organisations, economies and cultures, as province cannot return to its pre-civil war in that direction. And in view of the boorish well as political system s. These issues are prosperity. And population growth is among behaviour at Islander forums of at least two grouped under thematic headings rather the highest in the world there, and in the of our prime ministers in the past, this than as item s in alphabetical order, so that contiguous Solomons which is riven by encyclopedia should inspire more respect commonalities as well as differences can be secessionism and despoiled by Asian for Pacific customs. emphasised- for example in sections on loggers. Its government must soon cease to Grotesquely, during the last decade, language, indigenous chiefly system s and function altogether without salvage which, when we should have expected our tertiary religion. While it is invidious to select items if it happens, will be reluctantly and institutions to provide the research, for praise, a general reader (a nd this book is probably even futilely rendered, because instruction and training to understand our not just for Pacific scholars) w ill find the the causes will not be readily recognised. region, they have been deprived of the funds discu ssion on climate change, global Any salutary post-mortem will have to and incentives to do so. The Pacific History warming and related phen om ena rational m ove beyond the ritual retrospects of department (set up in 1950 ), and related and readable, as is the section on World exploitative colonialism to the troglodytism disciplines in the Research School of Pacific War II. of the late three-time Prime Minister, Studies at the Australian National Univer There are generous profiles of cities, Solomon Mamaloni, and those who relished sity, led the world in this area and developed chiefs, explorers, missionaries, observers his pork-barrelling. In Vanuatu we have postgraduate programs for Pacific Islanders. (even Denis Diderot, who never left Europe), just had the ludicrous spectacle of an Indian Gradually these disciplines were watered scientists (some often neglected like Lajos trade and investment adviser becoming a clown to include South East Asian and East Biro), anthropologists (Mead and Wedg- government offi cial by depositing an alleged 82.5kg ruby ('the world's biggest' ) as an earnest of his philanthropic intent to in vest At the launch of The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia, Foreign in the biggest infrastructural projects the Minister Alexander Downer gave an unexpectedly eloquent country has seen. He said he might donate it to the nation. He claims it is worth $3 17 speech, showing that he at least saw the urgency of a less million; passing through Australia its declared value was $40,000. A more patronising and more holistic response to Oceania. It is to be notorious finance haven is Nauru (pop. hoped he can persuade some of his more capable 11 ,360 which includes immigrant workers), infamous now not just for its lunar crater of departmental officers to point their careers in that direction. colonial ceo-devastation but for its patron And in view of the boorish behaviour at Islander forums of at age of the m oney-laundering of huge crimi nal gains, especially from Russia. In Fiji least two of our prime ministers in the past, this encyclopedia (pop. 800,000), the largest of Pacific Island should inspire more respect for Pacific customs. states after Papua N ew Guinea, the latest racial- constitutional crisis may prove irresolvable and may be seriously aggravated Asian studies. No Pacific History is taught wood), explorers, politicians, sportspeople, by the end of this year as more Indian at undergraduate level at the ANU toda y. and writers, both indigenous and visiting. farmers lose their l easeholds. More Courses at the universities of N ew South This allows full scope for nit-picking as to emigra tion is likely, and where Wales, Adelaide and Newcastle or at La who sh ould be in or out. The editors have ""{ i{ T better than to Mr Hanson's land? Trobe and Macquarie universities no longer b een indulgent, including Somerset exist. It is not good enough in the current Mangham as well as Mel ville and Michener, v ~TH STRATEGIC denial at least for the climate for politicians to say it is up to and poet James McAuley on the basis of his time being a dead issue, all this ironically universities to choose what they teach. For minor epic, Captain Quiros, and other points to an increasingly burdensome role salient disciplines like this, appropriate writings. But Kenneth Slessor because of for Australia, especially in Melanesia and, pressure or earmarked funds should be the long poem 'Five Visions of Captain to a lesser extent, for New Z ealand, prima applied. This is why this colour-coded one Cook'Z Still, Daniel Defoe a nd his rily in Polynesia . Our mighty partner, the volume encyclopedia is overdue, and inauthentic Man Friday are there too. USA, expects u to shoulder it although, imperative even. It has been som e five years The final grouping, 'Island Profiles', presumably, it will continue to keep its in the makingand, toits greatcredit, AusAID proceeds for easy reference from' American own eye on Micronesia. Failed and new has contributed $107, 000 to its preparation Samoa' to 'Vanuatu' and 'Wallis and Futuna' states in Africa and the former USSR and and publication. In pursuit of flexibility and, imaginatively, includes areas which Yugoslavia have becom e competitors for and inclusiveness, som e 200 scholars from are neither states nor dependencies, such a the aid and investment funds of other Canberra to Cardiff, from Massey (NZ) to Chatham Islands (NZ), Galapagos Islands powers. At the launch of The Pacific Islands: Marseilles, have been recruited. (Ecuador), Irian Jaya (Indonesia), Ryukyu An Encyclopedia, Foreign Minister Alex It would be misleading, however, to Islands (Japan) and Torres Strait Island (Aus ander Downer gave an unexpectedly eloquent give the impression that the tome is tralia). The inclusion of the last-nam ed speech, showing that he at least saw the pre-eminently political. It is a compendium should alert Australian readers to the fact VOLUME 11 NUMBER 5 • EU REKA STREET 31 that their off-shore frontier is populated by documents and maps. We are assured that Thea tre Royal soon after his return. How Pacific Islanders, and that there have been 'great care' has been taken ' to select images ever, a little later 'the thea tre of the stage' at least four occasions in the '80s ancl '90s in which do not dehumanize or exoticize' had to bow to 'the theatre of the courts', which calls for secession have been made in people-an admirable bias as long as it is which was supplemented by 'a thea tre of this Eddie Mabo territory. recognised as such. (See particularly the rumour and gossip'. Fin ally, we are told It would be too much to expect these section on 'Dress and decorative art' and that 'the theatre of the Bounty has had its cl ays that, in general, the unvarnished 'Performance'.) However, while ' the visual bicentenary' (1989) which docs not quite lucidity of most entries did not owe a great representation of the West's others is m ea n that the Bounty has been a subject for deal to the two editors, Brij Lal and Kate problematic', we need not wallow in self 'thea tre' for 200 years. Rather, what hap Fortune, especially as the contributors arc doubt. I am rather sceptical of obli ga tory pened on the Bounty, according to the not expected to be hidebound by past con deference to deconstruction su ch that we author, was 'pure theatre', which raises the ventions of excluding all but 'obj ective, have to believe that a photograph 'may epi stemological question of what was verifiable, uncontroversial facts'. La! and provide as much information about the 'actuality'. Or are time, space and events all Fortune justifiably claim that they are photographer as the photograph'. True, it metaphorical or m etonymical these days? 'comfortable with the knowledge that may, but more often it does not. To test this In which case we may need a new word for scholarship is partia l, fluid and changi ng'. one could ask Malcolm Fraser as a benign the conventional sense of metaphor. The They accept its 'tentativeness and inescap eminence to take ethnographic photographs wise editors fortunate ly preface thi s ab le subj ectivity' without lapsing into the in Easter Island. exquisitely self-conscious narrative with a modishness and jargon that made, for Speaking of which, perhaps today the 14-lincsummaryofwhat basically happened example, The Cambridge History of the book would not be quite encyclopedic if it and follow it with a paragraph on William Pa cific Islanders (1 997), at times preten did not give an example of postmodern Bligh himself. But it is a wordy way to tious and uncommunicative, especially the modes of discourse. So our editors have have to illustrate a problem. • parts written by anthropologists. included a narrative of the mutiny on the The work is admirably illustrated, with Bounty, in which we find that 'the theatre' James Griffin is emeritus professor of history images of people, fauna, flora, artefacts, of Bligh's mutiny was held at London's at the University of Papua New Guinea. BOOKS:2 PAU L RULE Church, democracy and dissent From Inquisition to Freedom: Seven Prominent Catholics and their Struggle with the Vatican, Pau I oil ins, Simon and Schuster Australi a, 200 1. ISBN 0 731 H I 043 0, RR P $26.95 Upon this Rock: The Popes and their Changing Role, Paul Collms, Melbourne UmversJty IT Press, 2000. ISBN 0 5228 4849 4, RRI' $.'i..J..tl.'i HE CATHOLIC CHURC H is not a life were, indeed, democratic: the election the pope byhavingtowithdrawtwoversions democracy.' How often do we hear this of bishops by the whole congregation, pro- of their list of alleged errors, already signed from Catholic conservatives? Of course it longed public discussion of doctrine, and by Pope John Paul, which Dupuis and hi s is a not inaccurate statement of the actual the administration of communal resources Australian Jesuit theological adviser were situation in the Catholic Church of today, by the laity. A degree of democratisation is able to demonstrate were not to be fo und in and it is defensible as a very gene ral not just an aggiornamento, a catching up the book. theological statement. But does it mean, as with current standards of public life, but These and similar themes run through it usually seem s to mean in the mouths of also a return to Christian basics. the two recent books by Paul Collins, as clerical bureaucrats and others, that there On the other hand, the neglect of due well as his earlier Mixed Blessings and is no place in the church for due process, process by the Vatican, especially by the Papal Power. Collins, an histori an and a consultation of the fai thful, and respect for Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith theologian, or perhaps better a master of pcoplc?OrthattheHolySpiritonlyoperates (CDF), has inrecenttimcs becomeascandal historical theology, uses his expertise as through the autocrat, the secret delator, the with consequences highly detrimental to well as his long experi ence in the media to non-elected? the papacy itself. In the recent case of the illuminate the deeper sources of current Such asentiment also displays historical Belgian Jesuit theologian, Ja cques Dupuis, differences within the Catholi c Church. ignorance. Many features of ea rly church the Congregation succeeded in humiliating There have been several recent general 32 EUREKA STR EET • j UNE 200"1 histories of the papacy, most of them well cases, except perhaps that of Hans Kung, way of checking their competence in the worth the reading. However, I would have seem to relate to fundamental theological areas involved. There is abundant evidence no hesitation in recommending Upon this issues. All, including Kung's, seem to that many of the problems have arisen from Rock before its rivals. While not neglecting involve what is perceived by Roman lack of fluency in the languages of the the political history of the papacy which bureaucrats as compromising papal original works. Edward Schillebeeckx was has been the focus of many recent writers, authority (theirs by appropriation). Kung's able to demonstrate that many of the charges Paul Collins weights his study towards case, after years of inaction, was reopened addressed against his books rested on a theology, especially ecclesiology. Thenar when he wrote a preface to Bernhard Hasler's simple misreading of his English language rative is structured around the develop How the Pope Became Infallible. Leonardo publications. Tissa Balasuriya, in his inter ment of a monarchical papacy: its uncertain Boff was not questioned for his views on view with Paul Collins, told a strange story origins, its dark days when it became the liberation theology until he turned his of his request for an English translation of toy of the Roman aristocracy, the reform critique, in Chmch, Charism and Power, the Italian summary of propositions drawn from the ll th century culminating in the on the church itself. Paul Collins' God's from his English-language book, resulting claim to 'fullness of power' over in a list of alleged erroneous state as well as church, the statements not found in the struggle between conciliarism original. His ideas had been and papacy, and the inexorable filtered through a poor Italian but circuitous development of translation, which had been the the modern 'papal octopus', basis of the adverse judgment omnipresent and all-competent. of the full Congregation. And All this is done with a light the judgment of the Congrega touch, humour and a firm grasp tion came to him in an of the issues. What could easily unsigned, unheadedletter with have become a matter of lists Vatican stamps, showing con and'sound-bite' opinions is an tempt for an elderly and distin engaging story, almost a thriller. guished priest. Where criticism is offered, it is There was also a curious based on an understanding of shift in many of the cases the dilemmas facing sincere discussed in From Inquisition men often ill-prepared by train to Freedom, from an initial list ing and experience, sometimes of allegedly erroneous views to by personality, for the political new ones not previously on the role imposed on them by the agenda. When Hans Kung was history of the complex institu denied his licence to teach as a tion-part state, part church Catholic theologian it was on they were called upon to govern. Earth, a truly radical theological work, does grounds of his views on Christology which In From Inquisition to Freedom, Paul not seem to have attracted attention while had never previously been raised during Collins expresses his regret that Papal Papal Power: A Proposal fo r Change in over a decade of stand-off with the CDF. Power, a popular and polemical work, and Catholicism's Third Millennium did. Tissa Balasuriya was ordered to make a the one that brought him to the attention of Another constant in these cases are profession of faith that included some ready the CDF, was published before Upon this blatant breaches of due process. Despite made clauses totally irrelevant to the sub Rock with its more extended historical three phases of regulation of its processes ject matter of his Mary and Human analysis. Both are essentially an historical, since it superseded the old Holy Office, the Liberation. One, on the ordination of not a theological, critique of the papacy CDF continues to breach its own rules. women, was not explicitly discussed in the today, focusing on church government not There are two yawning gaps. Any case book. Omitted, however, from the Vatican doctrine. However, it would appear that regarded as urgent and serious can be fast version, but included in Pope Paul VI's this is precisely where Roman tracked and, since the pope signs all its ' Credo of the People of God' which sensitivities lie. decisions, none can be appealed through Balasuriya was prepared to affirm, was the usual canonical procedures. mention of a belief in salvation outside the EOM I NQUISITION TO FREEDOM is an impor There are, moreover, many inherently church, the heart of Balasuriya's position. tant book. It outlines the history and unjust procedural features. To begin with, Jeannine Gramick and Robert Nugent, functions of the Roman Inquisition/Holy the accused never knows who has made the who had engaged with great sensitivity in Office/Congregation for the Doctrine of complaint that set the Congregation in the difficult ministry to homosexuals, were the Faith and, through interviews and com motion. Files are created and investigations not only removed from that ministry and mentaries, discusses the encounters of five initiated on anonymous information. In from discussion of the issue in what Collins m en and two women with the CDF in civil law those making false accusations calls in a delightful misprint 'the pubic recent years. It makes disturbing but also and there is evidence that many made to forum', but were required to make a formal illuminating reading. the CDF are totally false-are open to public statement of their private con One is struck by the issues which have defamation proceedings. science on the morality of homosexual brought these people to the attention of Again, those who make the assessment acts. This is unprecedented, and contrary to Rome's doctrinal watchdog. None of the are never known to the accused. There is no the spirit both of Vatican II and of canon VOLUME 11 NUMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 33 law (w hich, in a somewhat parallel instance, What might be done? Some of Collins' Collins, do we need the antiquated (a nd, protects individuals from being forced to conclusions at the end of Upon this Rocl< I would add, non-biblical) structure of the 'manifest their conscience'). may seem u topian, although one might college of cardinals, which evolved out of As an eminent theologian wrote in the argue that the Kingdom of God is itself the the senior clergy of the diocese of Rome? standard commentary on the Decrees of supreme utopia and demands a utopian Might not the World Synod of Bishops play Vatican II: 'Over the pope as the expression government. In any case, police-state the role that it seemed destined to play for of the binding claim of ecclesiastical methods without police-state efficiency are a brief euphoric moment after the Second authority, there still stands one's own con hardly the answer. Vatican Council? science, which must be obeyed before all Collins first directs his attention to Lastly, the church must listen, not only else, if necessary even against the require reform of the Roman curia. Its extremely to its own members but to the whole ment of ecclesiastical authority. This centralised structure is impossibly cum bcr world, including the disaffected, and to emphasis on the individual, whose con somc under modern conditions. Can one both sexes. An exceptionally gifted, science confronts him with a upreme and frai l old man, or a vigorous young one for energetic and, in all senses of the word ultimate tribunal, and one which is beyond that matter, bear the weight of the world charismatic pope has, in the eyes of many, the claim of external social groups, even of flooding in by email, fax, video and print? failed to be the focus of unity and hope that the official Church, also establishes a And why should he? Might not decision he undoubtedly intended. Wh at hope for a principle in opposition to increasing making be devolved, as it was for most of lesser man? • totalitarianism.' the church's history, to local bishops, local Another common feature to these cases synods, local Christian communities? This Paul Rule teaches history and religious is that they involve priests and religious, could enhance the authority of the papacy studies at La Trobc University, and in the professional church people who mostly by restoring its proper function. Department of Theology and Religion and depend for their livelihood on the church. It Communion with the centre is essen the Ricci Institute at the University of San is tempting, but probably unfair, to sec in tial but relatively easy today. Why, asks Francisco. this a certain vindictiveness on the part of Roman ecclesiastical careerists. However, the effects-psychological, personal and BOOKS: 3 professional-on those who have given a T IM MURRAY lifetime to the church arc enormous. The anguish that comes through in Collins' interviews is hea rt-wrenching. No doubt they will survive, and pick up the shattered pieces of their personae. But what is the The big picture cost, and what must we think of a church that thinks such human suffering is a price worth paying? The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and its Paul Collins reminds us that what Hans Peoples, Tim Flannery, T ex t Publish ing, 200 1. 1'1\N I 11764 RS72 H, 1uu• $SO Kung once called' creeping infallibility' has become in recent time 'galloping infallibil ity' as the CDF seeks to extend it to all T fCANNm'' htw oxou"ion into (and evidently the publisher) regard as an aspects of the 'ordinary magisterium' of the continental mega history begins with a mas heroic effort of popularisation. Books like church. What is needed is some historical sive cosmic collision and ends in prophecy. this, sometimes satirised as the 'what it all perspective. Robert McClory, in Faithful It is a 65-million-year history in 350 pages, m ea ns' school of global history, arc becom Dissenters (Orbis Books, 2000), lists the covering the period from the end of the ing more common, clearly attempting to dissenters, from Aquinas and Galileo to Yves dinosaurs through to a late 20th-century meet a need for explanation on the grand Congar and John Courtney Murray, whom reflection on the ecological cost (to the scale. First made famous by Stephen Jay history has vindicated against their papal North American continent) of the USA's Gould (whose book on the natural hi story critics. A solid dose of history is needed by global economic and political domination. of the Burgess Shale, Wonderful Li(e, is many defenders of ahistorical orthodoxy. The Eternal Frontier is a play (or film) in simply awe-inspiring for its s h eer It is less than two centuries since Pope five acts, the first beginning with an asteroid intellectuality) and later, and much less Leo XII solemnly asserted: 'Anyone who impact in the Gulf of Mexico, and the last satisfyingly, carried on by Jared Diamond has recourse to vaccination ceases to be a ('In which America conquers the world') (w ho is praised by Flannery in-text and who child of God ... Smallpox is a judgment ending with Flannery's speculation that in turn praises him on the dust cover), from God ... and vaccination a challenge the bulk of North America's population megahistories of this kind usually require a hurled against heaven.' Papal fatuities from 1000 years from now will be descended strong narrative line that weaves much Boniface VIII's solemn statement that 'it is from today's Mexicans (a slightly more va ri ation and time into a pretty simple altogether necessary to salvation for every restricted racial mix than that portrayed by explanatory system. human creature to be subject to the Roman Ridley Scott in Blade Runner). How good such narra ti vcs are as science Pontiff' to Pius XI's rejecti on of 'progress, Evaluating a book like this provides depends on the quality of the research liberalism and modern civilisation' remind some interesting challenges, the most undertaken, the quality of the writer's us of the dangers of such excesses. The first difficult being the need to avoid an overly understanding, the clarity and sophistica victim is the credibility of the papacy itself. academic response to w hat some readers tion of the explanatory (read theoretical) 34 EUREKA STREET j UNE 2001 position adopted and, of course, the quality of the writing. The value of such narratives as literature would, I suppose, be worked out using some (or possibly all) of these criteria, but with a greater emphasis on the quality of the writing and of the story itself. The real difficulty is that in books like this it is very easy to get the two confused. How should a reader evaluate the quality of Flannery's arguments about scientific matters, given that he synthesises a mountain of complex data from many fields, not all of which have a substantial second ary literature to work from? Should an evaluation be based on Flannery's author ity as a scientist, the persuasiveness of his writing, the attractiveness of his message that we need to take responsibility for the global environment, or his ability to create a plausible reading environment where 'heroic' generalisations consort with personal reminiscence? Obviously all these and others are possible, but to my mind any evaluation should consider how well The Eternal Frontier answers Flannery's core questions about the nature ofNorthAmerica. These he states with admirable clarity: The great questions for me are these: what are the quintessential determinants of life in North America? Have they remained stable through time, and how strong are they in shaping flora, fauna and human societies? Has North America always been a global cornucopia, or is it only under special circumstances that some of its productions-both human and non human-can successfully exert global influence? And can its leading nation, the United States, 'long endure' in its current form? (page 5). Big questions indeed, made bigger by the fact that (as Flannery himself observes) the post-asteroid history of North America has complex and profound causes. The Eternal Frontier as an ecological history works best when time is big and human beings (hence really complex causality) are absent. As the temporal units of narrative get shorter and causality becomes ever more complex, the overarching ecological frame of reference becomes less satisfying and the core ques tions (to say nothing of the answers) get to look vague and woolly. The search for eco logical balance is a journey many of us have already embarked upon, and Flannery's detailed discussion of how North America has been stripped of biodiversity should convert many more to the cause, but there is more to American history than the ideol ogy of Turner's eternally expanding frontier. EUREKA STREET 35 But let there be no doubt about the fact relentless subjuga tion of all that 'wonder Nonetheless, there is still much here to that Flannery can write. His description of ful life' to the clarity and simplicity of elicit a positive response. Flannery's object the consequences of asteroid impact, of the Flannery's ecological narrative. What works is to get us thinking more clearly and intel long succession of marvellous creatures reasonably well explaining the world of 65 ligently about the consequences of our use and ecologies which have comprised the million years ago looks pretty shallow when of the earth, and in this I think he succeeds natural history of North America, and his we get to the North America of the last 500 very well . Some of those chilling statistics his torical vi gnettes, are occasionally or so years. about habitat loss and the collapse in North captivating. Perhaps even more important Another part of the problem is the fear American biodiversity stay with you, as is the consistency with which he stays 'on that some readers may mistake a point of docs the sense of h ope which we can message' and the fea rlessness with which view with ' the truth'. This is big-picture experience when looking at the recovery of he freely mixes absurd overgeneralisations stuff, very broad syntheses of information the buffalo. Whether or not The Eternal with more penetrating insights. Certainly from a multitude of sources not always Frontier convincingly answers the questions there is the air of formula about the convincingly glued together by Flannery's which lie at its core, we can readily writing- slabs of dcscri pti ve text every few reading of the principles of ecology, and by acknowledge that there must always be pages arc 'personalised' by scenes from the odd bit of arm-waving. The Eternal room for big-picture syntheses with a Flannery's history (especially of his time in Frontier operates at a cosmic scale and message. Perhaps we just need to get used the USA)- but it is also true that these subtlety, nuance, ambiguity and context to the importanceofbuilding educated readers interventions from the author help lift the obviously can't get much of a look-in as we who can identify the faults and the shallow text, making it more like a movie script move from past to present to future at a ness, bu t still give credit where it is due.• with regular pieces to camera. furious pace. Debates get pretty summarily But that said, The Eternal Frontier is dealt with in the form of' ome scientists Tim Murray is Professor of Archaeology also an infotainment with which it is easy say this, some say that, I agree with this or and Director of the School of Historical and to find fault. Part of the reason for this is the that'. European Studies, LaTrobe University. BOOKS:4 M I N H BU I Revising Ho Ho Chi Minh, Wilham J. Dutkcr, Allen & Unw1n, 2000. ISB N l 86SO 84.'i0 6, Rl\1 ' $4.'i 0 "H 36 EUREKA STREET • jUNE 2001 time to know. The French and Americans erred on the side of fear. Their failure to understand the Janus face of Ho's politics resulted in three decades of continuous Gardener warfare, leading to the slaughter and maiming of millions and the deep scarring If it were England, and later in the day, of a beautiful country. Ho's latest biograph er, William J. she might have met him, faded shirt, Duiker, like many historians, believes he scuffed leggings and all, partly shadowed was a patriot foremost and a communist by circumstance. Although international by long allees at, say, Chiswick communism coloured his mental landscape, everything turned to vista, seeking out it was love of country, expressed in his lifelong devotion to the cause, which guided the Statue of Cain and Abel, the Domed his actions. Marxism- Leninism, he once Building, the Rustic Arch, the Doric Column told an American officer, was his 'fram e Topped by Venus, the Bagnio, work' for freedom. Duiker lays down Ho's patriotic creden the Obelisk and the Deer House, and the rest. tials early on in his big book. In the opening pages of the first chapter, he traces the lineage linking the Comintem agent to his A it was, the heart gone out of her with grief, revolutionary ancestors. Vietnam, the she picked her way through scrubby bushes, author explains, has a long and honourable tradition of fighting foreign invaders; her expecting nothing but the nothing left 1000 years of military resistance against when love's pegged up for the sun to eat. Chinese invaders stands at the centre of the nation's mythology and cultural self It was peculiar, then, to round a rock awareness. The fact that Ho hailed from and find some idler, hands pinked Nghe An, in central Vietnam, made his by spiky work, but the rest of him at ease, historical destiny that much clearer. Nghe An is a harsh rural province famous for liking the morning, nestling a crocus, producing national heroes and rebellious his wide mouth practised about her name. movements. Ho imbibed this tradition of resistance from his native Janel at an early - Peter Steele age: at 13, he was expelled from a colonial school for anti-French activities and at 21, he went to France to continue the fight. Despite his background, Ho was not remaining years in Vietnam. One could say century'. Some readers may feel that he let unique. At the tum of the century, especially they formed the compass which guided Ho off too lightly on a few issues. Like his in the late '20s, when Vietnamese society him and later his party from the August culpability in the failed land reform cam was plunged into crisis by the failures of the Revolution through to April 1975. paign of the mici-'SOs, which resulted in the traditional ruling class of mandarin scholars Duiker's account of Ho's life on the run, death of more than 10,000 peasants. And of to resist French colonialism, a new from 1911, when he left Vietnam, to 1941, course there is the question of his legacy. generation of nationalists was called upon when he returned, reads like an action Duiker asserts that Ho was ultimately a to save the nation. Young Western-educated packed picaresque thriller. Using new man who worked for peace and a nation men like Ho responded by forming political materials from recently opened Comintern builder, yet his actions led directly and movements or going overseas in search of archives in Moscow, the author has pieced indirectly to bloody conflicts which, some ideas and stratagems. Di Toy [Go West] was together a definitive picture of a significant would say, nearly wrecked his country. As the name of a popular novel which also if ambivalent shaper of last century's bloody Bui Tin, a former senior officer of the North became a rallying cry. history. Those 'blurry tracks' of his daring Vietnamese Army, has contended, Ho's What made Ho successful and distin escapes and sudden disappearances, which imperfect understanding of communism guished him from his idealistic compat had fru trated previous biographers, have and Marxism led to the demise and suffer riots was something rather commonplace: now been paved with meticulous research. ing of many people. It seems that the party hard-headed pragmatism. While his fellow Duiker combines scholarly analysis with which he founded and hi political epigones travellers were being jailed and killed or biographical narrative to produce not just a were bereft of the intellectual wherewithal coerced into compromises by the colonial biography of Ho Chi Minh but also a history to provide their people with enough food to authorities, he stayed alive and bided his of 20th-century Vietnam. eat and clothes to wear. For all his consider time. Ho's ruthless pragmatism, political Where Duiker falters is in his undis able achievements, Ho's place in history is cunning and survival instincts served him guised sympathy for the man he describes still under a cloud. • brilliantly during his three decades of as 'unquestionably one of the m ost influen political apprenticeship abroad and his tial political figures of the twentieth Minh Bui is a freelance journalist. VOLUME 11 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 37 BOOKS :S M I C HAEL M c G I RR Handle with care Cafe Schchcrazadc, Arn old Za bl e, Text Publishing, 2.00 1. t<;BN 1 H76..J.HS 7 1 X, 1\IU' $2 7.SO The Front of the Famil y: A Talc of Two Sisters, Renata Singer, Bruce Sims Books, [<;[IN () Y.'i 77 800-1- 4, RIU' $2.2 B OTH TH m •oo" '" H"t novoh by Acland Street at a surf shop, a jeans shop ist, Martin Davis, to ga ther the stories which authors who have seen a fair sli ce of life. It and a trendy homcwares shop, you 'll won spill on to the floor of the cafe. But Z 38 EUREKA STRE ET • )UNE 2001 classifieds leaving, a crabby fri end lets slip that Zo ha's second husband, PO LI T ICS I T H E PUB L' ARC H E AUSTR ALI A Adash, was not Miriam's father as she had always supposed. Adash SYD EY Arc you seeking a way of li fe rather is buried at som e little distance from Zosha, near his old mates, so 6pm 7 .45 pm every Friday that people can imagine the m enfo lk carrying on in dea th just as than a job? L' Arche commun ities they used to do at the Scheherazade, talking and playing cards. offer you an opportunity to June I: 'Sell ing oiTand selling discover the gift of people with an out: Schools, Land , ADI, Compo T he Springvale cem etery also fea tures in Zable's book: 'with intellectual disa bil it v in a shared and Ca ll an Park ' Wendy Bacon each passing life I feel it m ore keenly: there are tales aching to be lifestyle. For more informati on (Department of Communica tions, told, craving to be heard, before they too disappear into the grave.' contact: Regional o-ord inator, UTS); John Robertson (Ass. The narrator com m en ts that his work is to add to the m ythology ph: (0 3) 6278 1833 , ema il : Secreta ry, NS W Labour Council); of an ancien t land. Cafe Sch eh erazade is in om e ways abou t lsutton@ iprim us. com .a u, Hall Greenland (Leichhardt allowing dust to settle. or vi sit our websit e: Coun cill or and Journali st) The Front of the Family is also about healing, but it is a m ore www .kyric.com / I 'archc June 15: 'ACTU and a future rau cous book. Miriam 's search for her real father m ay allow her to Labor Government: cosy or tap into the stories of an older generation as she m oves around the COLL ECT ED W O RKS combative? ' Sharon Burrow (Presid ent, ACT U) and com mu nity looking for clues. If they know anything, the friends The Australia n Poetry Bookshop Check out the new shop at the Sa lly McManus (Austra lia n of her parents are not willing to divulge it. Both Miriam and Basement of 256 Fli nders Street , Servi ces Uni on) Felunia have enough to contend with as they negotiate their own Melbourne VI 3000. You' ll find The Gaeli c Cluh , middle years. They are both in relationships which are falling apart the biggest , broadest collection of 64 Devonshi re St , Surry Hi ll s but neither of them really knows where to head, not even which poetry titles on sa le anywhere step to take first. T hey manage to be both frenetically busy and between the Ind ian and Pacifi c CATH O LI C EDUCATION purposeless at the sam e time. Their lives are complicated but they O ceans. Some secondhand and CON FER ENCE share a sense of futility and confusion . As a portrait of two wom en, out -of-print volumes availabl e. Melbourne, 4 6 Ju ne. 'The . tory of our Nati on. The Story of The Front of the Family is a compelling book. It is a book which Mail orders welcome. Ca tho li c Ed uca ti on. www . appears to have been laboured over: every detail of the e lives is Tel: (0 3) 9654 8873, coll ectedworks@ mailcit y .com centreforce.com .au/ cecm200 I carefully rendered. That is a strength. Singer has great aff ection for her characters and their world. She respects their story and handles SPIRITUA LI T Y IN T H E PUB GOT T H AT GAGGED FEE LI NG? it with care. • SYDNEY 7.30pm 9pm , fi rst Wednesday of For fi ve years, Free Speech the month Victori a has drawn attention to M ichael McGirr is the author of Things You Get for Free and The attacks on free speech. \ Ve ha' e Good Life. 2 May: ' Men at the crossroads' hel ped those who ha,·e spoken out. Ma rk Byrne (author of ,J fp hs ~f In 1999, wc awarded the tl'tanhood) and Br Graham Ncist l'ms out spoken Victo ri an Aud itor (who runs spiri tuali ty courses for General , Chcs Baragwanath , o ur young men and women). first Vo ltaire Award. If you arc 6 Junc: 'A conversa tion on interested in 1-ree Speech Victoria, alienati on: crossroads for the contact Terry Lane, PO Box 93, Art Monthly young Robert Fit zge,·a ld Forest Hill VIC 31 31 (Comm iss ioner for Community AUSTRALIA . ervi ces NS W ) and Li sa Alonso Love (member of Young Christi an Cla,sificcb arc now abo vVorkers and co-ordinator of sen ·ice published on our wclhilc, lor young people Jca,·ing care). at hllp: / / www. IN THE JUNE ISSUE eurckaslrecl.com.au I Be ll enJc Hotel, 159 Hargrave pages/ classificds.hlm I Jacques Dclaruelle wonders about the dual imperative Street , Paddington of teaching the contemporary and critically EUREKA STR EIT CLASS IFI ED S discussing historical art. SELF-PUBLISH ! G Sick of rejecti on? Why not publis h Got somethi ng to sell or lease? Want to buy? Need staff? Want to Peter Timms talks to Geoffrey Ricardo about art that book yourself? Contact Sy lvana Scannapiego. offer professional servi es? and social commitment. Tel: (0 3) 9427 73 11 Eureka Street class ifi eds ads for just 25 arc your answer . \!arion Halligan reflects on the fo g sculpture in the Mail your ad and cheque by the :\a tiona! Gallery of Australia's sculpture garden. 5th of the month for display in the PSYCH OLOG IST foll owing month's edition. Julie Houni N Robert :\elson queries the acquisition of 25 words fo r a single ad ( 25) or ( B.A ., Dip . App. Soc. Psych., Lucien Freud's .·l{ier Ci::. anne . 55 words fo r a double ad (S SO). MaPs. S., Member of A.P.S. and clinica l member ofV .A. F.T .) John \lcPhce on I .ucien I Icnri Sen d to: lncli ddual I marital I family therapy; at the Powerhouse \luscum. Eureka Street Classif1 cds anxiety; depression; relati onship PO Box 553 diffi culties; phobi as ; compul sive Richmond VI C 3 12 1 SfJ .UU .fimn all good /Joo/..•slwps a111/ lll' II'Sagents. di sorders; add icti on. or phone U2 6/2.::; 3986 .fin· your subsaipllon. Tel: (0 3) 948 1 7836 Next d eadline : 5 June fo r July/ August 2001 editio n V OLUME 1 1 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STRE ET 39 he wants his girlfriend back. Mostly he just seems to want to piss people off, and then act hurt and angry when they turn on him. And he can't understand why no-onc wants the mullet he catches in the local creek and tries to sell for beer m oney. He can't even give them away (yes, that would be a meta phor at work). It's all pretty fa miliar territory for Aus tralian film: inarticul ate lead male, the 'return hom e' story, the combination of quirky naivety and casual violence, the search for (masculine) identity. Interest ingly, though , on several occasions it threa tens to turn into a musical, with the characters regularly singi ng pop songs 'to themselves' as a way of trying to communi cate their innerm ost feelings to each other (Dragon's 'I'm Still In Love With You' pointed enough for yo u ?). Of course, the other characters never actually get the message. Still, there arc some strong perform ances in the film, especially from the sup porting cast (Peta Brady as Mullet's rough-as-guts sister is a ge m), and the fact line of cli ched dialogue (' but what if I've that Caesar has now made three feature been chasi ng a ghost ?') or a paper-thin char films in Australia is something of a miracle Crying shame acterisa tion (Depp's mysterious, silent in itself. It's rare for an Australian film but-strongGypsy type). While John Turturro m aker to get funding for a second film from The Man Who Cried, dir. Sally Potter. handles the role of a vain Italian opera within Australia itself, whi ch of co urse T here's nothing quite like Johnny Dcpp singer and collaborator with his usual confi means that the inevitable career trajectory having a cry on screen. I don't care how dence, Catc Blanchett's (a bove) performance for many of our fi lm -m akers is ultimately sophi sticated your average cinem a-goer has suffers under the weight of a thick Russian overseas. How many of them return home become, this sight can' t help but crack the accent. I kept getting flashes of John Cleese to find their true selves in among all this hardest heart. But i that enough to recom running around in his underpants shouting quirky naivety and casual brutality is mend a film7 N ot by a long shot. While The 'Vladivostok, Sputnik!' and the like. It just another question altogether. Man Who Cried realises som e handsom e goes to show how far off the m ark The Man -Allan James Thomas moments, on the whole it limps along under Who Cried was: even when touching on the weight of a clunky script an dan icy mood. some of the 20th-century's most tragic The year is 1927 and Fegele (Claudia m oments it left me replaying A Fish Called Smart nair Lander-Duke), a yo ung Russian-Jewish girl, Wanda in m y head. -Siobh an Jackson is living in a village with her father. They The Monkey's Ma sl<, dir. Samantha Lang. play hide-and-seek in the fores t; she laughs, Most films are constructed and marketed he sings. But surrounded by uncertainty Casual cut within the framework of a particular genre and persecution, the fa ther leaves for romantic comedy, action thriller, murder America, with his family to follow when he Mullet, dir. David Caesar. Oddly enough, mystery, etc., giving the audience a set of bas found work. With little warning, given the current recycling of '80s fashion, expectations for the film to either confirm violence engulfs the village and Fcgclc is the title of David Caesar's new film refers or confuse. forced to flee, carrying little m ore than a more to the fish than the hairstyle. In fact, When a film declares for a genre and few gold coins and a photo of her father. Mullet is both the nickname of the film's then fails to fulfil the audience's expecta Ending up in England with her nam e main character (played by Ben Mendelsohn, tions, it is usually its unmaking. lAnd wh y, changed to Suzie and a new Christian foster whose h air in the film is more of a conversely, the pretty tired James Bond family, Fegele is fo rbidden to spea k Yiddish dcconstructed shag than a mullet ), and a formula is still being made and still works.) and the photo of her fat her is hidden. Su zie none-too-subtle metaphor for his relation The Monkey's Ma s] 40 EUREKA STREET • jUNE 2001 she is not hyper-human; she doesn' t even students to, to give them an idea of an carry a gun. During the film, she is often historical era and an historical figure. The confused, som etimes out of her depth and hero, Pcppino Impastato (brilliantly, I have Tidy town pain fully real. Her voiceovcrs arc not cynical to say, played by Luigi Lo Cascio) it is or world-weary; they arc poetry. Her love revealed at the end, was a real person, a State and Main, cli r. David Mamet. State interest is not a spiced interlude, but rather young, fe rvent Communist who defi ed the and Main shoul d have been a real ripsnorter the central elem ent of the film . When things Mafia in Cinisi, a Mafia-dominated town in of a picture: wonderful ensemble ca t, sharp don't work out, she cries. This stuff doesn't Sicil y, and was fin ally murdered by them in intelligen t writing, experienced direction, always work; there a rc som e grating 1978. I didn't know this while I was watch and clean direct photogra phy. But, to m y moments, but the twisting of audience ing it, but the credits at the end confirmed chagrin, the rips and snorts were well expectations is not The Monkey's Ma sk 's m e in the vague fee ling of discomfo rt I had hidden. unmaking. had throughout the m ovie. Som ething was The plot is all hys terical possibilities. Susie Porter as Jill, the private inves very earnest. Something clunked a bit- not Big-town film crew descends on small-town tiga tor, is wonderful; comic, serious, much, just a bit. America to shoot The Old Mill, a film lovcstruck, honest. Kelly McGillis, as the Bio-pics can have this effect on m e: they concerning a hairy-chested firem an (Alec femme fatale, is almost unrecognisable. really should be documentaries. I was so Baldwin) and a breast-baring nun (Sarah Even in other films when she was supposed bored by Gandhi that I have never been able Jessica Parker). This is the film's second to be tough- ! am thinking of The Accused to sit through it. Lawrence of Arabia was small town- the first was abandoned due there was always an undercurrent of sweet different because Lawrence was such a to unforeseen under- age dalliances and ness. As Diana in The Monk ey's Mask, fictional construct in real life that the film budgetary disasters. But this fresh start there is no sweetness, no innocence. he is was able to be a film. C osta-Gavras quickly turns into a logistical nightmare: pure self-interest, the classic film-noirdam e succeeded in Z, but that was after all roman the new town's old mill (featured on its ('Sure, there was a dame ... ' ). a clef. tourist brochures) burnt down 30 years ago, The central relationship is between two Perhaps it is because The Godfather the sandwich-delivery girl is canny and women, and I have a sad little feeling that ( 1, 2 and yes, even 3) films were so brilliant under-age (Julia Stiles, below ), the lead The Monl V OLUME 11 N UMBER 5 • EUREKA STREET 41 Noonday devils Greenslade: T his is t he BBC. Rom eo takes the poison, there were points where I was thinking: Seagoon: So! You admi t it, then? Six months hard labour, to be Oh no, they're not really going to start WWI; drop the atom done in twelve monthly instalments. bomb; vote for Reagan, are they7 Doom ed to repeat history no FX: [gavel] m atter h ow much we hear it, w e need to la ugh at it, even Greenslade: I shall appeal. incredulously. Seagoon: Very well. Released on bai l of five long twisted things Goon humour is invested with that 20 th -cen tu ry with holes in the encl . experience, with a barrack-room nuttiness that k nows what an y war costs, even a just on e. Goon fa ns arc becoming rare, but they are to British humour's best traditions what Marx / T s "THe BBC' used to be the un;ve 42 EUREKA STREET • jUNE 2001 Eureka Street Cryptic Crossword no. 94, June 2001 Devised by Joan Nowotny IBVM ACROSS 1. Rude and naif about painting? What kind of slip is that? (8) 5. Run through the agenda, perhaps-! am unable to do so as I am washed out! (6) 10. Provoke dog in front of home. (5) 11. Tread nonchalantly back after bowling spell, to applause that's somewhat exaggerated. (9) 12. The spirit's coming for the feas tday celebration ! Does it cost lOp, and a note, perhaps? (9) 13. 'Pinafore' on this stage? (5) 14. Edgy, initially-N ew England Rovers are 5-0 to America (7) 16. Cast off poor fellow who is in blue. (6) 19. Tax the queen for the privilege of keeping water bird. (6) 21. Twice to encircle boy in city. (7) 23. I would subject me to honour-in a manner of speaking? (5) 25. Marches sam e boy as in 21-across to firs t rows in theatre, for instance. (9) 27. Cherished and reassured, drops S-bend forT-square in front. (9) 28. Som e come in for inform ation, initially, on far-fetched story of adven ture, perhaps. (3-2) 29. Live interview, maybe, about team. (6) Solution to Crossword no. 93, May 2001 30. Complicate the situation with m edical specialist's point of view. (8) DOWN l. Turn over and gasp at a remark so impertinent! (8) 2. Little by little, boy took in one old coin with a hundred. How odd! (9) 3. Lament, fo r example, free return. (5) 4. Being tender in the dream-or oust your lover. (7) 6. Am algamation about short answer to problem concerning diving bird. (9) 7. Movie in which I star, perhaps, is up and going. (5) 8. Finish, yes, finish with a cocktail. (6) 9. Being excited, he dined on delicacies firs t. (6) 15. Ed 's poem ? It somehow m ade the best of the situation. (9) 17. Spending June and July, fo r instance, between various locations. (9) 18. See 22-down. 21. For a start Tim droned boringly on about the path that was well frequented. (6) 22. & 18. Time of year when both sun and ice are on the street- both sides! (6,8) 24. Plato's form s aside, a penny for your thoughts! (5) 26. English racecourse, unusually, hosts operatic heroine. (5 ) ------~ This subscripti on is: Your Contact Details: Gift to: (Please also fill i11your Oll'll coli lac! details, left) 0 New 0 Renewal 0 Gift 1Mrs/M1Ss/Ms/Mr Fwst Name ~ 1Mrs/M1Ss/Ms/Mr~~~~----~F- AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW JUNE 200 1 Allan Patience on Debunking Economics Penelope Mathew: Australia's Treatment of Refugees I L:m k-.tonL' 11 ,1 11 j, .111 international pa-.wr.l l cl'ntrc that ha:-. s~..·ncd Liw uniH'P.;a ] Church ,1\ J Cl'lltl\.' or ~pi ritual n.. ' l1l'\\JI for the P·''t l\\ l'lll~ -fiH· :l~ Jr .... The hothl' John Legge on Humphrey McQueen j.., ,ct in l',ll'l1'.. i\l' parkland in Shrop•,hirl', l·ngl,md . It j.., ,1 peace fllk·d place. and Capitalism Tht~ ! Ia\\ bit om· Rcnt•wal Cour't' i ~ the fir,t elwin· lor m,m; prie,t-., rdigiou~. and Ia; pt·opll' '' ho comc f'rorn al l parh of the \\oriel on sahhatit·a l. \Vith tht• James Griffin: Manning Clark, hel p o l' k ~Hiing 'lwaker' and tlw rc'\idcnt '\talror Rl·dcmptorists of the l.ondon Frank Hardy and 'Big Lies' Pro,·i nn.·, n •li g iou.., and 1.1_, peopl(•, it prm ide ... tlw opportunit; to upd.ltt. .' and continth: tht• prOl'l'" oi'pt•r..,culal and ~piritual n ' IH.'\\,11. Peter Beilharz on Who 's Who Course dcltesjor 1001 <'\.2002: in Australia 2001 2 3 April 19 Juh- 200 I 7 Januor)· 21 1\ larch 2002 6 Decem her 200 I 22 April 18 Jul) 2002 J ohn Tranter's new book of poems 9 Sq>ll.•mhl'r 5 lkn·mhcr 2002 For j "urther derails contofl: Tlw '\ccrl'tan (I S) Batavia -Arabella Edge's Diary l lawk-.tolw-llall ,\larchamk·' Shn·"'bun ~Y4- 51 G I n~land l<· lo ++++ 16l0 685242 bxo + H+ 16-lO 68)565 hnailo I Ia'' khat l(cl aol. com ISSN 1036-1758 OS 771036 175017